


Sister

by pixiepuff33



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-18 07:34:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 63,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7305520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixiepuff33/pseuds/pixiepuff33
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They drove for three miles in silence before Vernon spoke up.</p><p>" So your brothers are turtles?"</p><p>" Yeah."</p><p>" And that picture on your phone of the rat guy and the little green guys-- isn't from your childhood passion for monster movie make-up?"</p><p>" No."</p><p>" Are you really a ninja?"</p><p>" Yes."</p><p>Vernon swallowed thickly, then jerked his head in something of a nod once.</p><p>" Cool."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

"Get the girl! She's seen too much!"

By too much, he meant the bullet that'd gone through her dad’s head.

By too much, he meant Mr. Sacks behind the trigger.

 April wanted to cry; to scream and run to her dad, but she was smart. She knew no matter how hard she cried they’d take her next.

'Bad men wont pity you', Dad would say. 'They wont care that you're a little girl. You run and don’t look back.'

So April ran as fast as her small legs could carry her down the smoke filled-street, covered thick in a blanket of putrid fog. Ran away from the burning lab with four small turtles and a brown rat bundled into the little pocket she made with the bottom half of her shirt.

There were three large men in black suits chasing after her, yelling for her to stop running, that they’d help her if she would just stop.

But they wouldn’t help. So she wouldn’t stop.

April heard their voices and footsteps behind her, but it was white noise compared to the sound of her heart,deep and panicked like a drum-beat in her ears.

The men were fast, but she was a small and agile. On nimble feet, April ducked past a corner and into the darkness of an alleyway just in time for the security to run by, mistakenly thinking she'd gone ahead.

She stopped with her flushed cheek against the brick alley wall, until the sound of boots against the pavement became too distant to hear among the traffic and sirens, willing her heart to slow down. She took her first real breath in over ten minutes, white mist filling the air like cigarette-smoke from between her dry lips.

April's legs were sore from running. Her throat and chest hurt with every dry breath, and her eyes watered from the cold wind hitting her face. She was lost, her father was gone, and she had no money to get anywhere by taxi. So she was stuck here.

Still.

April looked down into her make-shift basket.

"Everyone okay?"

April’s breathless question was met with a rather relieving squeak from Splinter, and a cute sneeze from Leonardo that made her smile despite the circumstances. She was relieved that the running or fire hadn’t hurt them.

Her dad worked-- had worked, so hard to help people. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Splinter were the world to him. They were a new beginning.

Her father was a busy, single, middle-class man; so April would come to the lab everyday after school instead of getting a babysitter. It was boring for a child, but it was necessary and April understood that. Everyday, for weeks on end, she would come into the lab, do her homework, eat dinner with her father’s coworkers, and then go home. She truthfully loved science as much as her father did, but they never let her do anything of merit.

Until the turtles arrived.

Four baby Red-eared Sliders and an adult brown rat in two tanks, and April got to be in charge (unofficially). It started with the names. She picked her favorite Renaissance men (Dad liked to make her read ahead of her class.) for the turtles, and the rat was named after what her Dad got (and cursed colorfully after getting) when he moved his tank from its original crate.

She wasn’t allowed to hold them, but when they weren’t doing tests she was allowed to pet and feed them. Mr. Sacks said the ‘positive human interaction’ was good, and anything she could do to educate them would help.

So April would read to them. Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Harry Potter. She’d do her homework with them, feed them some of her lunch, and sometimes just talk. With permission, she even got a few home videos with her video camera (Michelangelo was very photogenic). After her father, they were the most important thing in the lab when it set on fire.  
They were her friends. And now, they were her only family.

"I promise I'll keep us safe." April mumbled, looking around the alley way. It was a promise she probably couldn’t keep, better made then done.

There wasn’t much beside a dumpster where she was, and the chain fence towards the back was too high to climb with her boys in her arms.

Her eyes landed on the half open manhole peaking out from under the dumpster in the dim lamplight, around strewn beer cans and crushed wrappers. Walking over to it, April peered down into the soft glow, it slowly fading into something much darker and scarier half way down. It looked distant and cold, but she could see a rusty steel ladder bolted down the wall.

"That brat has gotta be here somewhere. She’s a fucking kid! She can’t go that far!"

"I’m lookin', man! I'm lookin'!"

April held her pets close to her chest as the shuffling came closer from the other side of the alley, bumping the dumpster harshly. The turtles and Splinter must have sensed her fear and squirmed in her arms.

The security guard slowly made his way down the alley, heavy footfalls making his boots crunch against the broken glass and autumn leaves on the ground. Each step sounded like thunder in the surrounding silence.

The sudden clang against the gate at the far end caught his attention and he ran down quick enough to see a little girls light up shoe on the other side, still blinking.

"Murry! Joe! I got her! Other side, we'll cut her off!"

The men ran, leaving the alley behind just in time to miss the final rattle of a manhole cover sliding back into place.  
\---

April had been walking for a million billion years.

At least, that’s what it'd felt like with one shoe. She'd thrown it over the gate, and a light-up sneaker was a small price to pay for a life saving misdirection. But now her hands hurt from pulling that man hole cover back. She wouldn't be able to do it again.

The adrenaline was fading from her system fast and April was tired, hungry, and cold. She missed her Dad, she was scared, but she kept walking; tears silently flowing down her cheeks as she hobbled down the echoing, and endless sewer.

It was all she could do.

She’d found a walk way easy enough, managing to avoid getting her shoeless foot wet with the grimy water. It was dark at first, but her eyes adjusted pretty quickly since it was already dark when she came down. The rats and bugs squeaked around her in a grotesque symphony, and April felt nauseated by the sickening, hot, smell.

She didn’t have a plan past getting away from the guards, not that she had time to make one. Maybe she’d find someone nice to help her in the morning if she stayed here. Construction men were always around manholes when Dad took her out, so they had to come down here sometimes.

But where would she go for tonight?

April stopped walking and looked down into her pouch, seeing that the four turtles had fallen asleep. Donatello was laying on Raphael, who was sandwiched between Leonardo and Mikey, whom had all snuggled as close as they could to her warmth.

Splinter though, looked up at her with wide black eyes, sitting with his paws on her chest; alert and waiting for her.

"Hi, Splinter." April sniffled, starting to trudge forward again.

"I’m sorry to keep you up. I just don’t know where to stop yet." She hiccupped, bottom lip quivering, only leading to more tears in her eyes to complete her flush red cheeks and small red nose.

"I wanna keep you s-safe. But I’m so tired."

April's breath hitched into sobs, fat tears rolling down and soaking the collar of her unbuttoned yellow winter coat. It was a hand me down from her cousin, clean but worn down at the elbows, false fur on the inside flattened with use. Her jeans were ripped at the knee and soaked up to the ankles, and her ponytail band had snapped hours ago from her nervous tugging.

Her walking stalled and she slowly sank to her knees against the wall from exhaustion, holding her pets close to her chest like a lifeline.

They were everything now.

“I promised to protect you. I’m s-sorry."

Splinter crawled up to her shoulder and laid a paw on her wet cheek. April looked him and touched her forehead to his, taking the gentle contact as the closest she could get to comfort from another person.

She wished her Dad was here. Someone, anyone to help. April didn’t know how to fend for herself, let alone five animals. But there were people up there, people who had money, and power. Who didn’t care if she was a little girl. They just needed to shut her up.

They stayed there for a while, until her sobs, echoing through the damp tunnels dulled to quiet sniffles and small hiccups in the chorus of clicking bugs and shuttering pipes. They listened to the quiet squeaks of other animals around them and the flow of the water by their feet. Eventually April collected herself, rubbing her eyes dry with her palm then stroking Splinters back.

"We can’t go back up. We can’t go home." April said in a near whisper, looking to Splinter who had his full attention on her and leaned into her gentle caress.

"So we need a new home. Just us."

Splinter crawled back onto her lap, nose twitching on the air. April looked forward to the wall across from them, studying the graffiti and the running pipes on the ceiling above that rumbled every once and a while. Probably in sync to the flush of a toilet somewhere.

She didn’t want to think too much into it.

"Maybe we can live with sewer monsters." She sighed, loose hair flopping in front of her eyes.

"Maybe they’re nicer than they look in the movies. And not like Scooby-doo guys where they always end up being weird old men. What do you think, Splinter?"

Splinter stared for a second, a twitch of his nose his response, then leaped off her knee and started down the corridor with nothing but the pitter-patter of his feet in his wake.  
April jumped up startled and, careful not to jostle her passengers, ran after Splinter.

"Splinter, no! Don’t leave! I was kidding!"

Splinter turned a corner into pitch black and April skidded to a stop. She stalled at the empty black before her and looked slowly around the opening in fear, only to see that it was a passage way and not a corner. A row of turnstiles blocked her path, but she managed to squeeze through the most broken of the bunch without incident.

She squinted at the darkness and used an open hand on the wall to help move forward. She could see the outline of walls, a large open roof area and passage with smaller passageways around it, littered in light from an unknown source.

April pulled back her hand in shock, having bumped it on something unfamiliar to the other bricks and chipped paint. She really hoped it wasn’t a bug.

 Slowly she moved to place it back on the wall, feeling around again until her small fingers hit curved plastic. A switch. April flicked it and the sudden light left her reeling, blinking her dark focused eyes to the new brightness.

After a moment she got a good view of the large, brightened, space around her. An abandoned subway station.

There wasn’t much judging by her first walk through. A kind of chipped dusty toilet which for some reason still had running water (same with the sink.), a mattress that was probably from a hobo who used to live here judging by all the dirty blankets and the shopping cart, and a few cans of something that were too waterlogged for April to read.

The walls were covered in graffiti, but it was noticeably warmer then the passage ways, and besides an annoying buzz, all the lights seemed to be working fine. April did one good circle around the center of the room and looked down to Splinter who was now at her feet. April's face split into her first smile of smiled the night, and kneeled to let him crawl back into her hands.

"This is perfect." She said, pressing a kiss to the top of Splinters head, which he bowed down to accept. He was getting big.

Her boys in tow, April walked over and gently placed the four sleepy turtles and Splinter on a corner of the mattress. Pausing to hack at the puff of dust that poofed up from the mattress and resting herself on the open area beside them. She pulled up the blankets until they covered half the turtle’s shells, and her to the shoulders. Splinter laid between them, between her nose and the turtles sides.

April took a deep breath, rested her head on the cushion and reached over to gently pet down Splinters back. The mattress was stained mysteriously and smelled like ramen noodles.

"We'll find help soon." She told him, pulling back her hand to rest under her cheek.

"We'll find someone to take us home. And we can all be a happy family. Away from the bad guys."

April’s mind drifted to her father, but she was too numb to cry, and somehow too tired to sleep, so she watched Splinter. She watched the big black eyes that watched her with as much understanding as any human could possess blink slower and slower until his breathing leveled out and he fell asleep.

Not long after, April did too.

  
\---

  
It didn't take long for April to figure out no one was coming to help.

By late afternoon the next day to be precise.

She woke up early that morning to Leonardo nibbling on the ends of her hair. They layed together for a long time,just waiting for the soft light to filter through the room and eventually rolling out of bed at around ten am, according to the Power Ranger watch that she'd gotten for Christmas the year before.

She had waited at first, too scared of getting lost to walk down the sewer again. But too nervous to stay put. She'd piled the turtles into her pockets (They wiggled but enjoied the warmth) and Splinter walked ahead to lead her.

They'd found nothing but another man hole cover a few blocks from the station ( that she couldn't get to move even with Splinters help. And he was stronger than he looked.),but other than that they were completely secluded. Meaning they were stuck.

But April was from New York. And she didn't feel like dying in a sewer this week.

So when they got back they cleaned. It wasn't well done considering it was a sewer and water and hand soap only did so much, but it helped. She tugged the mattress into the nicer side of the room and made the bed with the blankets they had, arranged the cans they had in the shopping cart and even cleaned a few broken plastic plates and cups for future use.

By the time April was done it looked less like an old subway station and more like a….subway station with a mattress. But you could only do so much and she was hungry.

April eventually managed to open one of the waterlogged cans with a partly broken can opener that had been left in the shopping cart to find peaches inside. It satisfied everyone's hunger for a while. But she knew it wouldn't last.

" I wish I could get that manhole open." April said after their meal, scratching Raphael's shell with her finger much to his enjoyment. Leonardo rested on her leg,eyes shut but not asleep. She could tell.

" The other cans won't last long. You guys eat more than me." She said to Donatello,who listened from her other leg while Mikey was busy getting at the last bit of peaches in the can with vigor.

"I bet there's something up there we can use."

April rubbed Donnie's small cheek with her finger gently. The purple dot on his back had warn off by now, but it wasn't hard to tell him apart from his brothers. Donnie always listened. He paid attention and soaked in every word she said like she spoke in the lamp light they used to warmed themselves under. He always looked up at her with that same type of warmth.

"Ow!" April blinked in surprise at Raph,whose tiny mouth had gently bit down on her pinky finger.She must have been slacking off on his scratching.

" You're so violent." She said and Leo opened his eyes. April grinned down at him.

" He is isn't he?"

April leaned down until her nose came up to Raph's face and she was bent in an awkward pretzel to keep everyone balanced.

" Be nice. You're very cute. You'll go places."

A succession of echoed excited squeaks suddenly caught her attention and she turned towards one of the separate rooms of the station. Carefully moving the turtles,not without some squeaky whining on their part, April followed the noises until she reached the far back room they had yet to explore.

Splinter sat in front of a crowbar,paws rested on the rusted metal,but just like her,his attention was on something else.

A tree.

Its roots were expansive and sewn in and out of the floor, healthy green leaves covered the ceiling and the hole that the tree rose out of left room for soft light to filter between the branches. Filling the room in a way that it almost glittered.

April was lost in the sight until tiny-- actually rather large paws touched her exposed foot and brought her back to earth. Splinter moved towards the crowbar again and April smiled,kneeling to take it in her hands.

" This is great,Splinter! We can use this to get help."

Splinter nodded,understanding. April stood,crowbar in hand and look down with her best serious face at Splinter.

" Do you think you can handle our boys for a little bit while I'm gone? They can be a handful." She asked playfully and Splinter bowed his head.

April smiled.

"I know you can. I'll be back soon. Open the next can without me if I'm not back in an hour."

And with that,April sprinted out,pausing to give her boys a goodbye kiss first of course, and made her way towards the manhole a few blocks down.

It had only been a short while, but the sewers were starting to grow on her. They had something the city did not, silence. And when the tunnels had daylight through them, it wasn't so scary. Each manhole had a beacon of bright light shining down,a light of hope from the world above, that worked as impromptu street lamps.

As her own manhole came into view, the patter of her feet against concrete the only sound, her heart clenched. The butterflies in her stomach were tap dancing. It could've been from fear of what was up there waiting for her. Or maybe the peaches went bad.

She ignored it either way.

April made her way up the rusty ladder,propping herself on the third rung at a good distance to stick her crowbar through the crease like they did in the movies.  
It took a while,but eventually April was able to pry open the heavy metal lid enough to squeeze through.

This one was luckily not in the middle of the road, but it wasn't exactly in another alley either. There was a dumpster again but the lot was bigger. One wall was made of brown brick and smelled great from the other side,a pizza parlour most likely.

And the other side looked like a small apartment complex if even that. More like a two story home that rented each story as separate apartments.

April crawled out warily,looking around for anyone that seemed dangerous,but found that it was nearly barren. She stepped out to the end of the walk,squinting at the light but once again finding no one.

The back door of the pizza parlour suddenly opened with a bang and April ducked back out of sight behind four large trash bags. A teenage boy carrying two boxes of pizza in a red and white pin striped apron kicked the door again to keep it open,glaring inside.

" The lady had a lisp,Ben! How was I supposed to know she was sayin' sausage?!"

"It's your fuckin' job, Asshole!" Came a rather pissed voice from inside and the teenager scoffed at it.

"Like your one to talk!" He snapped and dropped the pizzas down on the ground with a thump. The rest of the conversation was lost and muffled through the steel door closing with a loud bang,and after a quick check,April crawled back over.

There was no way she could be this lucky,but low and behold when April opened the lid of the box, a steaming hot pizza was sitting there,completely untouched.

Taking no time to wait for them to fix what must be an amazing mistake,April grabbed both the boxes in her small arms and lowered them into the sewer where they hit the floor with a thump of cardboard, before following their lead and lowering herself down and covering the hole again to hide her tracks.

Running back to the station excitedly with boxes clutched to her chest , April thought how lucky it was for her to be in that alley at that second. Only in New York would they throw out perfectly good food.

And she loved New York.

  
\---

  
After finding the Pizza Alley,It didn't take long to work up a routine.

April would wake up, wash herself the best she could in the small sink ,then do the same with Splinter and the turtles. Brush her teeth with one of the multiple unused dentist gift bags she'd found in the dumpster that got chucked from Halloween the week before, then make the bed.

She had eventually pulled the mattress from the den into the tree room and found a lumpy pillow to call her own. Along with the multiple dusty blankets, she'd managed a pretty nice bed for everyone if she did say so herself.

By the time the sun was pouring brightly through the tree top, April would take the shopping cart and run a few blocks down to the manhole and scavenge as much as she could from the dumpster above.

It turned out the pizza parlour dumpster was an endless supply of free food. Half untouched cheese steaks, hoagies with all the meat taken off, soda without bubbles and even full pizzas! (Even though they had weird toppings most of the time. Probably why they got thrown out.)

There was a lot in the apartment dumpster too. Little girls clothes (her size!) In garbage bag on the doorstep was a great find. And after a while she found even better stuff. New blankets, pillows that didn't smell like feet ,soaps ,toilet paper and even shoes! (They didn't light up like her old ones but beggars can't be choosers.)

She'd been living in the sewer for almost a month now. It wasn't easy, but April had to take care of her growing family.

And by growing,she meant it literally.

Splinter had been most noticeable. He'd started walking on two legs a week into the move. He was more responsive,nodding his head yes and no and even picking up things with his hands like a person!  
He got bigger every day and now he was taller than she was.

She eventually started to take everything in stride. She lived side by side with Splinter like she would have with her own father. He got the things from the tall shelves and took on chores like tending to the laundry and sweeping the floors. And April went on food runs,fed the boys and made the bed. April had gotten used to the changes quickly as they happened and accepted that whatever Mr.Sacks did had changed him.

The boys changes were more subtle. Their feet and hands started to separate into little fingers and toes, and their markings started to fade.They eventually started to look more human.Their tiny squeaks turned into baby shrieks and April found herself and Splinter with quadruplets.

They ate more, needed more baths and toys and more beds, but April pulled it off like a champ. She and Splinter found orange crates and fashioned them into makeshift beds with colored blankets to tell who was who and even got some baby toys and teething rings from the alley across from their own. 

April somehow found another mattress in the service tunnels and pulled it back to the lair, as they now called it, (The Batcave was taken so the Turtle lair worked fine) and she and Splinter now had their own bedrooms.

April had made an house,and with her family it was now a home. And even if they had to do this forever, she'd be okay.

Even with the daily wake up calls.

" April. It is morning,child."

Oh yeah. And the talking was new too.

April groaned into her pillow in protest but creaked open a blue eye to meet the coal ones looking down at her.

Splinter had grown considerably,standing at a tall five foot seven that made her own height of four foot ten feel even smaller. Splinter took to wearing an old musty red bathrobe around the lair as of the last few weeks,but sandals were quickly dismissed after a day of tripping and a few curses that April was sure she hadn't taught him.

Splinter was his own person. Mutated rat person,but a person.

" I'm older than you." April finally yawned through the waves of bright red hair that fell across her face and Splinter chuckled ,stepping back as she crawled out of bed.

" In years,my child. How did you sleep?"

"Good." She stretched, standing and cracking her back with a few satisfying pops.

"Mikey woke me up at three to play. He never wants to sleep."

" I am sure you were the same at his age as well." Splinter said and April couldn't argue so she made her way to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

Six brushes sat color coded in a red solo cup separated by cardboard,and April grabbed the yellow one.She chose the fruity toothpaste rather than the mint.

" Do I need to make another alley run today?" She asked with a mouthful of foam, which she spat into the sink before Splinters reply. April heard the mini fridge they managed to scavenge open and a sigh came with it.

" Yes,it would seem so."

April wiped her mouth on the small rag that hung off the hot water handle and walked out to meet Splinters worried gaze and furrowed brows.

" I don't mind,Splinter." She said,eyeing his look.

"I like helping."

" April." Splinter said and she felt her heart drop. His tone was one she was quickly coming to associate with her father. Exasperation and worry mixed with regret. The ultimate parental tone.

" You do so much for us, and though appreciated,I cannot help but feel your role in our lives is keeping you from living your own."

April frowned but didn't shrug away when Splinters hands gently rested on her shoulders.

" You belong up in the city."

" I belong with my family." April countered.

" Your human family." Splinter said and this time April did shrug his hands away,pretending it was in favor of emptying the scraps out of their shopping cart.

" Why should it matter if you're human or not?" She said, throwing an empty water jug onto their recycling pile across the room a little harder than she needed to.

April wasn't stupid. She knew exactly what he was saying but no matter how many times he said it, she was too stubborn to listen. There was no future for her here. Just a routine in a sewer that ,despite what Splinter said, he could do better than her by now.

Splinter readied himself with his usual rebuttal, but a high pitched whine from the boys room caught both of their attention before he could start.He lingered in the moment for a second longer, but gave in to fatherly duty and made his way to his son's room instead. April followed him with her eyes as he left.

April would've been lying if she hadn't thought about it,leaving. Finding some family members she knew weren't there and living up top again. Going back to school and having friends,eating something other than pizza and using a real shower. Things a eight year old doesn't normally think about.

But at the same time,as much as she wanted normalcy and her old toys and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Splinter, Michaelangelo, Donatello, Raphael and Leonardo were so much more important.  
The best of both worlds were harder than Hannah Montana made it seem. But Miley Stewart's family weren't mutants living in a sewer either.

"Ab!"

April realized she must have been pretty lost in thought,because there was suddenly a baby turtle trying to climb her pant leg with determination. She smiled.

"Hey Leo." April said and lifted the wriggling mutant toddler up and onto her hip like a pro.

He was bigger than a normal baby,they all were,but luckily for them they were still small enough that she didn't need Splinters mutant strength to pick them up yet.

" How'd you get over here? " She asked and was met with tiny three fingered hands patting at her cheeks and some colorful babbling as a response.

" Oh you did?" April said and started making her way back to the boys room where Splinter was balancing the other three Brothers rather masterfully while he placed new sheets in the orange crates. Mikey was still asleep on the floor beside him, perfectly comfortable. While Raph was held up by Splinters tail to keep his flailing arms away from Donnie who was chewing on one of the frozen teething rings Splinter had probably gotten when he'd opened the fridge earlier.

" We got a runner." April said presenting the eldest who was happily doing the turtles favorite activity of chewing on her hair.

" As I see." Splinter said to her, which also seemed to get the attention of Raph,who directed his grabby hands ,with added screech of injustice ,at April.

She quickly took Raph with her free arm so she supported both him and Leo,which seemed to satisfy them both for the moment until Raph had the bright idea to take a handful of April's hair and yank.

"Ow! Raph!" April said in shock and even Leo stopped chewing on his side to look personally offended at his brother. Donatello giggled and Splinter turned in surprise.  
Raph on the other hand was delighted and tugged again.

"OW!"

April hissed in pain and gladly let Splinter take both babies from her arms so she could rub the offended follicles.

"Are you alright?" Splinter asked, worried and looking over the spot between her fingers. April shook her head.

" I'm fine." April said,braving the pain that would send most girls her age into tears.

She took her hand away from the spot to prove it and was left with strands of long orange hair and red smear in her palm. The boys had their fathers strength then.

There was a beat of stunned silence from both of them before April quickly rubbed the blood off on her jeans.

" So, anything special you want me to look for up top today? " She asked with a smile, leaving the babbling toddlers in their crates and a silent Splinter to follow her to the den with she finished prepping the cart.

"April."

" I think I saw apple slices still packaged yesterday. Have you had fruit yet?"

" It's not safe for you here."

" It's not safe for me up there!" April spat back, turning away from the cart. She was so ready to be angry but fell quiet before taking in a shaking breath.

" What did I do? Why do you want me to leave so bad?"

Splinter's eyes widened in surprise and he quickly shook his head, calmly stepping forward to stand in front of her.

" We are monsters to the world above. The city is not a place for us,but it is where you are meant to thrive." He gently placed a hand on her head, stroking the hair left untouched by Raphael's mutant strength.

"You're not meant to live a life in the shadows as we are. We are dangerous to you,my child."

" I'm not your child." April said through fighting tears. A battle she was quickly loosing.

" Dad is dead. I'm nobody's child. I don't know where to go."

With that, Splinter couldn't respond. He didn't know much of life on the surface other than what magazines, their small wind up tv and April had told him. But if his dear April truly had no one beside himself and his sons, then there was a only a small hope that her life would end up any better than the one she would receive with them.

" April--"

" I want to go on a run now." April said,wiping her damp eyes on her shirt sleeve. And Splinter decided the best choice was to relent.

" Alright. Be careful--"

April was gone before he finished.

April wasn't sure she liked being on the surface much anymore. At least compared to the sewer. It was kinda ripe down there, but so is New York.

But the surface was nice when she needed quiet like now. No crying babies,no soap operas that Splinter was quickly becoming too big a fan of. And no big talks reminding her she was an orphan.

April knew a girl who used to be "in the system" from her old school. Lacey Tilley talked about how when her mom got sick she didn't have anyone else to go home with and had to stay in foster care for three whole months before she got to go home. She told of getting thrown from house to house and family to family all the time. Sometimes for no reason at all. And how even if some kids got adopted, a few would come back weeks later for 'not being the right fit'.

Even if they managed to find any of April's relatives, like a long lost aunt or uncle she'd never met, Mr.Sacks would probably want to get her out of the way like he did her Dad. She wouldn't be safe.

April knew where she needed to be.

But being in the sewer was going to be harder if she couldn't find everyone lunch.

The apartment dumpster was coming up empty. Which was uncommon for a monday morning but not out of the question. April pulled herself back out of the bin and sniffed the air. She swore she smelled something good, but there was nothing in the bin.

She followed the smell and started walking up the alley to the front of the complex where a small porch was that connected to the suburban street. There was an open window to the left side towards the door that connected to the first floor and the stairs to the second. And inside there was a bitter yet almost sweet smell that was coming off the stove top next to the window.  
Creeping closer to the center walk to get a better look,April stood on her toes to get a peek inside and took a big whiff.

" It's tea."

April flinched and jumped back against the railing in shock. There was a man standing casually at the left door in brown slacks and a white t-shirt, looking down at her like her curiosity was almost expected.

" Black tea."

April furrowed her brows,relaxing enough to move her back away from the rail.

" Would you care to join me?"

April frowned.

" You're a stranger." She said and the man nodded .

" I suppose. But you seem very well acquainted with my garbage, as well as my niece's hand me downs." He gestured to the red transformers T-shirt and blue worn out jeans she was wearing under a thick yellow coat that she had gotten from the bag in the man's doorstep.

April flushed and shook her head, putting her hands up in surrender and playing as innocent as she could. Heat rose to her cheeks but still not to her stomach. She felt embarrassed for being caught but still felt no fear towards the stranger. He had a kind presence.

" I didn't mean to steal from you."

She paused and scrunched up her nose in thought.

"But you did leave it lying out. In New York.And trash is kinda free game." April said and the man laughed at her bluntness.

" So I did." His smiled returned a little warmer and he bowed his head gently to her.

" I am Hamato Yoshi."

April looked the man up and down. Clean cut black hair, warm brown eyes and a white toothed smile. He was probably in his late mid-thirties to early forties. He didn't scream serial killer but then again, the good ones never did. She'd have to go with her gut on this one.

" Im…April. I guess its nice to meet you ,Hamato."

" No no." The man shook his head.

" My last name is Hamato. Please, call me Yoshi."

April blinked.

" But you said Hamato first."

" I am from Japan. We say our last names first."

" We're in New York." April said like she was speaking to a three year old and Yoshi laughed again.

" Old habits." Yoshi moved away from his door to make room ,gesturing towards the warm inside. It'd been awhile since she felt artificial warmth and the temptation was great.

" Please." Yoshi said. " Join me for some tea. Get away from the cold."

Yoshi seemed nice. And if he'd known she'd been stealing all this time and still not have gone to the police, he must actually be nice. At least nice enough to offer her a nice sit down to explain herself before anything else. She could respect that.

So cautiously, April waded forward into Yoshi's apartment. It was pretty standard and not vey furnished other than the necessary. Couch, coffee table with some weird blanket hanging off it, a tv and a few pictures on a bookshelf against the wall. The kitchen was a off white compared to the wine red of the living room walls, and connected to the rest of the area with no barrier in between besides an island counter with two stools. 

There was a hallway farther down that probably lead to a bedroom, but April couldn't see down that far.  
She didn't like not knowing all possible exists but she'd make the exception today.

Yoshi shut the door behind them and maneuvered around her to get to the kitchen and take the tea off the counter.

The familiarity was almost unnerving. The domestic homey feel of a warm house and a fatherly presents felt like an echo of what she had now, but the sensation of no fear, not wondering if she needed to provide ,was calming to the point of anxiety. Which started to build in her chest.

It was usually all about the boys. If Donatello was properly stimulated before nap so he could be tired enough to sleep. If Mikey was full and was getting the endless attention he needed. If Leonardo needed more quiet time in her room so he wasn't cranky when he played. And if Rapheal needed more toys to rip apart if he had another temper tantrum.  
Splinter did what he could, but four children was overwhelming enough. April wasn't taken care of like she used to be. And at this moment, it almost hurt to feel like she was again.

And all he did was not murder her (yet) and invite her in for tea .

Yoshi made his way back to the living room and set the tea down with its cups on a little tray in the center of the coffee table, then beckoned her over.  
April moved slowly.

" Please have a seat."

He moved to sit and much to April's surprise, sat under the blanket on the coffee table instead of the couch. Yoshi must have seen the look of confusion on her face and just smiled at her, no judgment of her apparent ignorance.

" It's a kotatsu. Another Japanese tradition. Please humor me."

April raised a brow at the oddness of it all but shrugged it off to sit across from him and place her hands in her lap like you do with strange company. She didn't want to sink into comfort too soon.

The table was heated.

Yoshi started to prepare the tea.

" So, where exactly are your parents?"

April frowned but kept her eyes on the tea until he set the cup down in front of her.

" My mom died when I was born.My Dad was shot in head." April said bluntly for the shock value,hoping to end the parent talk with that alone.

But Yoshi, though looking shocked for a good second, much to his credit recovered. But with a sterner expression than before. His eyes darted to the smeared blood on her jeans for less than a second.

" Who do you live with now?"

" Family."

Yoshi raised a brow.

" Family?"

" Yeah.Family." April said vaguely but Yoshi didn't take the hint, once again.

" Do you live close by? An apartment?"

" No."

"No?"

" I live with family, not in an apartment and not near by!" April slightly snapped and Yoshi's eyes filled with pity after an awkward beat.

April watched the steam rise off her cup in silence. She shouldn't have snapped. But she couldn't trust him by giving him anymore. Being defensive was the better play,but not rude.

She moved to apologize but Yoshi stood and walked over the book case first. She watched him take a picture off the shelf then sit down to her right.

" This is my wife. Tang Shen and my daughter,Karai ."

April looked up to Yoshi's eyes, then down at the photo.

There was a Japanese woman posed next to Yoshi. She had beautiful long black hair and wore a sort of red robe with flowers covering its shoulders. Between them, in her arms was a baby with tufts of black hair and big brown eyes wrapped in a pink blanket. Yoshi had a robe like his wives, but yellow with no flowers and a black belt.

" Years ago, I lost my wife in a fire. And a short time ago, I lost my daughter as well."

April frowned and looked back up at Yoshi. He looked down, but not at the picture. His eyes glazed over like he was lost in something.

" She died?" She asked and Yoshi shook his head, setting the picture down.

It took him a second, but he seemed to find what he wanted to say.

" No. Karai was lost in grief for many years. And eventually her heart grew cold. She left me and Japan to pursue a new life."

" You can't find her?" April asked and he didn't shake his head again but he didn't have to. He looked away from his far off gaze to April.

" You cannot find what is lost if it does not wish to be found.No matter how much it is missed."

April nodded solemnly and looked back at the photo. His smile in that picture was so much brighter than the ones she had seen.

" Do you wish to be found, April?"

She turned back to Yoshi, swallowed, then stared into her tea. The steam was gone now.

" No."

" So someone is searching for you."

Not a question.

" My Dad was--" April stopped.

This man was a stranger. She had no reason to tell him anything. But she wanted to. She wanted to tell somebody,Anybody that she needed help but she knew she was too young to truly know the cost.

So, not all if it. Not yet.

" I saw something I wasn't supposed to see." April said just above a whisper.

" So I can't stop hiding. But my family wants me to. To get help. But if I get help I'll be found."

" Those searching for you have power." Yoshi said and April scoffed.

" Money." She said like the word was crap sticking to the bottom of her shoe and Yoshi frowned.

April turned to the hand on her shoulder as it was placed and looked up at Yoshi's eyes like before. It wasn't pity. Understanding.

" April, you are wise beyond your years. Put in circumstances that would have crushed the weak with its burden."

Yoshi set his other hand on April's free shoulder,looking into her eyes in search of something. Hope.

April felt no fear, and the serious,caring face looking down at her made her want to cry. The sudden relief that she was feeling without even hearing his words yet was intense and freeing.

"If you cannot be found, I ask you," Yoshi pleaded. " To confide in me. To allow me to help you,April."

April took a shaky breath and realized she hadn't been responding for a minute or two. She swallowed and looked back into reality,shaking her head.

" My family--"

" Be with them." Yoshi said." But confide in me."

April took another breath to steady herself and gripped her sleeve to pick at a loose thread. Yoshi took his hands off April's shoulders, allowing her to collect herself and for the silence between them to finally settle comfortably.

" You left all that new stuff out for me." April stated and Yoshi smiled.

" You're very smart."

April smiled back and looked to her lap. Her eyes hit her watch and she cursed herself, bolting up.  
" Oh god its so late! I was supposed to find lunch!"

Yoshi blinked then stood with her, following her to the door.

" April--"

" I'm sorry Mr.Yoshi but I gotta grab something before the dump truck comes for the pizza shop." She quickly explained and Yoshi sighed.  
" I understand. But April,"

She looked up and Yoshi placed a hand on the uninjured spot on her head. Her heart twisted at the familiar touch.

" Come to me if you are in need."

April paused,then smiled brightly, nodding as he removed his palm.

" Next time."

Yoshi matched her smile.

" Next time."

April made her way back to the door and placed her hand on the handle, then stopped.

" Actually," April turned back and Yoshi perked.

" There is one thing."

  
\---

  
April made her way back in the lair, arms full of Pizza boxes and white greasy bags full of fries balanced next to a half drank liter of Coke.

Her entrance was greeted by four excited squeals from their place at their cardboard dinner table, and a very relieved sigh that she could see came from Splinter once the boxes stopped blocking her view.

" You took much longer than usual." Splinter said, which was his way of saying she almost gave him a heart attack. He helped her set the boxes down.

" I met a friend." April said,placing a large slice in front of Mikey who had long since learned to feed himself out of sheer excitement for food. And prophecy foretold, he shoved half the slice in his mouth before she was done setting it down.

" A friend?" Splinter asked in surprise. Leo sat in his lap, biting down on the piece in Splinters hand gleefully. Raphael was tearing into a slice of his own beside Mikey who was reaching for Raphs now that his was done. Splinter slid him another before he lost a finger to his elder brothers first baby teeth.

April nodded and sat down to take Donnie in her lap and cut a small chunk for him before looking back to Splinter with a smile.  
Whatever read on her face made Splinters intensity melt away and he nodded back. The rest of lunch was held in calm silence besides the break up of any fights among the brothers. The pizza was finished quickly but everyone seemed to leave the table with happy,full bellies and in Splinter and April's case, a sleeping toddler in each arm.

" Your friend," Splinter said, Leo passed out on one shoulder and Mikey slung comfortably across the other.

" He's--"

" A good guy." April said before he could finish, knowing the question. Raphs head rested on her chest and Donatello's cheek was against the pulse point on her neck. When they got to the baby's room, She set Donnie down first.

" I got help." She confirmed and though he didn't show it, Splinters relief swept through in waves.

He set Leo down,with much less fuss than usual luckily, then Mikey. Who snored and flopped down into an awkward angle with his face pressed against the side of the crate.

Three down, April lifted Raph and froze as the hair that was apparently gripped in his hand tugged when she pulled him away,realizing he was still slightly awake.

Splinter quickly moved in to remove his hand before her hair was pulled again, but stopped when Raph let go and placed his hand on the small bald spot on the crown of her head.  
April blinked in surprise and in an instant, melted. Raphael patted the spot a few times, frowning with tired eyes and April couldn't kiss his little head fast enough.

" It's okay. I'm okay. You didn't mean to." She cooed and Raphael yawned, quickly content with the outcome of his apology.

April let him rest on her chest for another moment, until his eyes shut and his breathing steadied into a soft rhythm. She set him down gently with his brothers and she crept out of the room to the den where Splinter had escaped moments ago to start cleaning up.

" Splinter."

He stood,placing the empty boxes back on the table and giving April his full attention as she walked up and slipped a long cloth out from her under her jacket.

  
" This is the other reason I was late."

Splinter paused, eyeing the material before lifting it out of her hands where it unfolded until it hit the concrete floor.

The robe was beautiful, yellow with a black sash and intricate designs sewn into the fabric. It wasn't new but it was far too lovely for anyone to have thrown out.  
April smiled.

" Its called a Kimono…I think. I thought you needed real clothes. Better than the bathrobe."

Splinter was in awe. Struck by the gift and looking down the lovely clothing in his hands like it would dissipate.

" April…" He started but she tugged at his sleeve.

" Wanna try it on?"

Splinter blinked, like the thought hadn't even come to him, and quickly allowed April to take the Kimono and hold it out from him to slip his arms into while he shed the dirty bathrobe.

It fit perfectly, the fabric was soft and it fell to his knees at the perfect length for his tail to fit without them needing to cut a hole through it. April took a black belt from its pocket and wrapped it around his waist, tying it closed and pinning a green buckle with an etched symbol to the front to keep it together.

" That's like ,the code of arms for the Hamato clan." April said.

" My friend, Hamato Yoshi, said that this was what the people in his family wore. And if we wanted, we could join the Hamatos. Ya know, since you guys don't have a last name."  
April did a final dust off and stepped back, smiling with her hands on her hips.

" I think you look good in yellow."

If April had not known better,Splinter's eyes looked almost teary. But apparently she didn't know better, because when his arms wrapped around her shoulders she felt a dampness on her head which was only small incentive to return the hug tighter than she already was.

" Thank you, April."

April pressed her head into his chest, eyes downcast but keeping her hold solid.

" I wanted to say I'm sorry. For getting mad when you were trying to help." She could hear his heartbeat,loud and strong. It was like music. Like her Dad's used to be.

" You were right but I just didn't want to be alone again."

Despite her inner protest she let Splinter pull back from their embrace and brush her hair from her face, to rest a hand on her cheek. Like he always did when she was upset. She leaned into his palm.

" You will never be alone, my child." Splinter said.

" As time goes on, whatever may befall us or what distance we will have to maintain, we will forever be family."

Gently, he rested his forehead to hers

"You are loved, April O'neil."

Aprils heart swelled so much she had to take a deep breath. The emotion rolling through her chest made her want to sing,but she just smiled and nodded quickly. The warm tears stinging her eyes were happy.

" I know."


	2. The Moment It Changed

April had a very good gut.

Yoshi was indeed a very nice man.

April hadn't asked for anything from him despite his saying to do so, a matter of pride. But in the weeks to come April couldn't help but come by to visit. If only for the change in company.

They started two weeks after their talk,by actually having the tea he had promised. And discovering April would definitely be a coffee person if the gagging after her first sip was anything for them to go by. ( Though judging from the quickly emptying box in the lair that Yoshi had given her to take home, Splinter was quickly becoming a big fan.)

Slowly it became more natural for April to pop in from time to time. They would sit at the kotatsu, Yoshi talking about his side work as a translator for visiting Japanese dignitaries and tourists, and stories of his family left in japan. And April, slowly giving him more and more information on her own.

She said nothing about them being mutants or their place in the sewer, but gave up as much as their names and the crazy antics around their household. Especially with the young turtles.

Her boys were growing and had started their first mile stones. Donatello was first to speak, shouting " 'OP IT!" at Mikey who was very intent on taking down his block tower at the time. Leonardo was walking and shortly after Raphael was practically running in an attempt to keep up with his older brother. Michelangelo of course was still very adamant on being the baby, but was very talkative and now knew how to get what he wanted using his unfairly cute face.

Splinter had slowly started taking more and more responsibility when it came to the outside. He started coming on runs,though only at night. April showed him the best places to find food and her favorite spots at the junkyard to find fixable stuff.

He kept himself busy with the Tv, the occasional book they managed to salvage and the boys, but it was obvious Splinter was getting tired of routine. April was too.So they tried to spice up their day with a hobby.

They both took up yoga at first, but as peaceful as it was, something was missing. They tried finding boardgames (the boys tried to eat the pieces too much to keep them around ) stargazing on Yoshi's roof. (Its New York. That one was a long shot) and even writing on how they felt. (Which ended in both of them figuring out their deepest inner desires were cravings for ice cream and cheese. Guess who picked what.)

It seemed like it was going to be a long boring existence in the sewer for a while.

Until it wasn't.

April's weekly shower at Yoshi's was now sacred. A few weeks into their new company, Yoshi offered to let her come in around dinner time once or twice a week ,after the boys were in bed and Splinter was tail deep in The Young and The Restless, to bum his water pressure after her smell became even too much for the sink at home to fix.

She readily agreed.

She'd taken a large t-shirt that reached below her knees as her own after her first visit when she finished while Yoshi threw her clothes in the wash.

And while she walked through the living room, distracted trying to tie her long red hair into her towel like they did in the movies, she smacked into the carved wood of Yoshi's book case.

Despite the shock and a few books tumbling from their shelves, no harm done. But Yoshi popped out from the kitchen anyway, watching her stagger back then frown at the bookcase like it personally offended her. He laughed and turned back to the hot cocoa he had busied himself with.

" Are you alright?"

" Yeah." April said,though still glaring at the case.

" Sorry I knocked over your books. I'll put 'em back."

"Can you reach? "

April obviously took that personally offensive too and responded accordingly.

" No, duh! Of course I can."

She heard Yoshi snort from the other room ,and April grumbled under her breath and knelt to grab the books. She stopped to judge the covers ,as one does.

A copy of Romeo and Juliet? Read it.

An English to Japanese dictionary? Maybe one day.

The Art of--

" Yoshi?"

"Hm?"

" What's Ninjutsu?"

There was beat of silence before a quick shuffling announced Yoshi's re-entry into the den. He knelt by April's side and picked up the books still on the floor.

" It is an ancient form of martial arts."

April flipped open the book and ran her fingers down the aged pages. The people in this book showed great skill. It was like karate, but it seemed more intense. And somehow more peaceful.

In movies, she'd seen actors and actresses doing things like this. It was all faked, but the premise was real enough. If Sacks ever came back, she could use something like this. She could protect her family. She could even teach Splinter what she'd learned and get him to stop watching those god awful soap operas.

" Do you know it?"

Yoshi paused and looked curiously at April,but sat down beside her,hands in his lap. The topic suddenly felt strained and unwanted but she wouldn't relent,despite the sense of unease that Yoshi gave off.

" My family has trained in the art of Ninjitsu for decades. I mastered my training years ago. As did my wife and our elders before us."

April closed the book and handed it to him. It was a family thing then. Most issues with Yoshi were.

" Can you show me?"

Yoshi frowned wearily and took the offered book.

" April, it's not like what you see in movies."

"No duh." April said,hoping at least to get another playful eye roll to wipe the tense look off his face. He simply placed the book back on the shelf.

" I afraid it's a commitment you're not ready to fully understand."

" I can commit." April said hard-headedly.

" I can put in the time."

" Can you?" Yoshi asked so seriously it almost made her stubbornness falter.

" Learning the ways of Ninjitsu is both mentally and physically taxing, April. It is daily practice, constant training." He placed a hand on her shoulder. Comforting,like it was okay to not want this.

" You have told me how hard you work for your family. It may prove too much."

" Why do you think I wanna do it?" April asked redundantly.

It seemed clear that the decision had been made. Yoshi's lips thinned to a line, eyeing April who held full eye contact with her mouth set. She wasn't going to budge.

" Alright."

" Yes!" April grinned and fist pumped the air, the smile she'd normally get out of Yoshi for that was now a calmly raised brow. And she found herself sheepishly folding her hands down into her lap.

" Thank you,Yoshi."

" Sensei."

April went deadpan.

" Really?"

The brow lowered and she put her hands up in surrender.

" Okay.Sorry,Sensei. When can we start?"

"Tomorrow. Before sunrise."

" Before sunrise?" She echoed but caught herself when the bactalk almost got her another raised brow. She sighed.

" Welp, it's not like I get much sleep with the boys around anyway."

That seemed to finally earn a small smile and April took it as the ultimate victory. As if a knife sliced through ,the tension was cut and the comfortable air filled the room again.

" That's the spirit." Yoshi said playfully, taking a mug off the tray and presenting it to her small waiting hands. April took a large sip at the same time Yoshi took his. The silence that held was nice.

For about three seconds.

" When do I get a sword?"

"April."

" Sorry, Sensei."

\-----------------

April refused to be the stereotype.

She wasn't going to be the person who after the  solid month of doing the same katas over and over everyday for hours at a time until perfection,  complain she wasn't learning anything only to get her butt kicked by her sensei before a huge inspirational speech.

She wouldn't be that person. But oh my god was she bored.

It turned out that besides his own and a guest bedroom , the long hallway in Yoshi's apartment lead to a dojo. There were mats covering the floor, the walls papered in floral patterns and wood paneling at the bottom edges. The far off wall was covered in weapons,  Katana, sai, nunchaku and bo staffs. Throwing stars and smoke bombs and other pocket sized weaponry too.

And the last month had been in it doing nothing but listening to Yoshi sitting across the room cross legged and calling out new movements for her to perform so he could critique her stance at four in the morning. It was grueling and annoying but day in and day out, April would show up, half asleep and on a caffeine buzz ready to practice.

And after a while, her training became addictive. She'd practice at home during the boys naps and read The Art of Ninjitsu cover to cover in an effort to be the overachiever her dad had raised her to be. She even managed to bench press Raph, at the moment the smallest brother, a few times.

April started to see the changes in herself. Her workouts to build muscle started to show the tiniest bit on her arms, and suddenly she was flexing in front of the mirror every time she passed it. More confident.

She was less stressed with the quiet in the dojo ,and nightly work with meditation put her at ease like she'd never known before.

It helped Splinter too.

She promised not to teach him anything she hadn't mastered herself, but meditation was something she couldn't wait to introduce. They'd sit alone in the tree room together for hours, taking in whatever time they had before their was a smash or a screech from the boys room and they were needed again.

But Splinter was getting better at running the house and encouraged her to spend as much time as she could with Yoshi, training and learning his wisdom. Or that's what he said. In reality he was trying to get her used to the upper side again. She wasn't leaving, they both knew that,  but anything he could do to giver her a sense of what he thought was human normalcy was enough for him.

As appeasement, she started coming to train at night too.

So the Hamato-O'Neil household had a new routine.

Four am, April would run up to Yoshi's, share his breakfast of what was usually eggs and toast but on special occasions pancakes, train until the pizza place next door opened around eight so she could run down whatever left overs Yoshi had made to her family down below.

She would help Splinter clean, show him what she had learned for the morning and night before and played with her boys until they went down for their nap around noon. They would meditate until they woke up and April would scavenge lunch, stop and get laundry from Yoshi's and then practice more with Splinter until dinner. After dinner, she went back up to train again.

Just like tonight. And the night before.

Doing the same thing. Over. And over. And--

Basically, April snapped.

A few nights before, during her alone time in the Dojo, April had the bright idea to take down some nunchucks and start flipping them around. And obviously, being a beginner with no previous weapons experience, she flung them up and broke the lightbulb, cutting up her feet from the fallen glass in the process.

She didn't think it was possible, but Yoshi was livid. He'd come running in, eyes wide and caring until the last piece of glass was cleaned from both the floor and her wounds.

Then, she got two hours in the Hashi.

The Hasi, she'd come to find out, was just the name he used to put her in a room and practice cruel and unusual punishment, which consisted of master level balancing techniques and moves that made every joint hurt for days afterwards.

" If you touch the weapons again without permission, we will cease your training."

Safe to say, she'd been on her best behavior for a while. But not without noticing how Yoshi had started to pay extra attention to her every moment.

Even days later, hours into practice in the dojo, April could feel his hardened stares..

"April."

Finishing her kata and breaking out of her inner monologue,  April stood in attention at Yoshi' call.

" Hai, Sensei."

Yoshi rose from his normal seated position and produced a small wooden plank. Beckoning her forward, April came to stand in front of her Sensei who held the wood out. Not for her to take,  but to show.

" Chop it in half."

April blinked, looked down at the board, then back up at Yoshi.

"…Can I get a sword or--"

"No."

Welp.

That being the only explanation she got, April moved into a familiar position (or at least the one that felt right) and eyed the board.

She had no idea what the hell she was doing. So she might as well follow the age old motto, fake it till ya make it.

So she raised her hand and brought it down onto the board with asa much force as she could manage.

And broke it.

Her hand, that is.

April of course flinched back and cried out in pain, pulling her affronted hand close to her chest in pain, tears stinging her eyes.

Yoshi knelt down immediately and took it without a word, no pity or caring in his eyes, just gently looking it over with an expressionless hollowness on his face while April sniffed and hiccuped through sudden painful tears.

" There is nothing broken."

Okay she DIDN'T break her hand. But it sure felt like it.

" Again."

What?

" What?" April sniffled and Yoshi stood, holding the board again.

" Brake the board."

" But I can't." She said, motioning her unharmed hand  to the flushed and slightly swelled one.

" Brake the board."  Yoshi said again, his expression just as blank as before, monotone. The sensei voice.

" But--"

"Brake the board."

April frowned and flexed her fingers on her affronted appendage. Now what?

Without much else to do and no give on Yoshi's face, she went back into position, raised her hand and brought it down only to allow the same painful result.

April jumped back again and cried out, glaring at the board and her Sensei through watery eyes.

" I can't do it!"

" Brake the board." Was the empty response and April wanted to scream, so she did.

" I CAN'T DO IT!"

"Brake the--"

April rose her hands again in frustration and screamed in anger, throwing her hand down on the hardwood and

SNAP

The wood fell from Yoshi's hands down to the floor with two splintering thumps in the new found quiet.

April stared down at it for a moment and sniffed , wiping her eyes in stunned silence. She looked up at Yoshi, who now held his hands behind his back.

" Lesson one and two; Never try to accel above your level. You'll get hurt. And stop questioning my methods. It's repetitive, but you're learning."

April blinked up at her Sensei for another moment. Then glared daggers.

" YOU LIFE LESSONED ME."

That seemed to break the teaching spell Yoshi was under and sent him into a fit of laughter at  her betrayed expression.

" I AM NOT KARATE KID, YOSHI. DON'T MIYAGI ME."

Nearly in tears over April's false rage, he attempted to collect himself and put on gentle hand on his students back, leading her forward.

"Come, let us get ice for your hand."

April grumbled but relented, allowing Yoshi to take her out of the dojo without much protest. Her hand hurt too much for her to keep pouting anyway.

If training way going to be like this from now on, at least she wouldn't be bored.

" Do you have medicine at your home?"

Yoshi lifted April up onto the kitchen island and she watched him shuffle around the small kitchen for the hidden medical supplies.

" Baby Aspirin and vitamins." She shrugged.

" My family has some strong immune systems I guess."

Yoshi looked at her from where he was shuffling through a rather messy drawer and raised a brow. She did the same back.

" What?  I can't know what an immune system is?"

"No no." Yoshi grinned, getting back to his task and pulling out a roll of bandages.

" You just never cease to surprise me."

" Who uses the word 'cease'?" April snorted and Yoshi took hold of her injured hand and started to gently wrap it.

" Look who's talking." Yoshi shot back playfully and April scoffed dramatically.

" Anything I say that sounds old is Splinters fault."

" Splinter?"

Uh oh.

" It's uh, a nickname. For my uncle. That I live with"

Nice save. 10 points to O'Neil.

" So you live with your uncle and his four sons,if I remember correctly." Yoshi said slowly and April eyed his tone.

" Yeah…"

She guessed names wouldn't hurt. Again. He probably remembered, but he was just prompting. Seeing how far he could get this time.

" Mikey, Donnie, Raph and Leo."

Yoshi finished her hand and April looked up at the silent questioning lilt of his brow. She played off another shrug and flexed her fingers.

" I liked Renaissance names."

" You named them?"

"I contributed."

She named all of them. But saying you named your Uncle would probably be weird.

Just a little.

" And where do you all live?"

" I'm pretty sure we did this." April said,hopping off the counter and making her way over to her bag on couch and shuffle through for her water bottle.

" Many months ago." Sensei agreed, leaning against the wall and watching her body language in a casual way she was slowly learning to detect.

"But now, we know each other better. You eat most of my food--"

" Look, you eat nothing but pizza for a couple months and tell me you're not craving some celery too, okay?"  April shot back.

Yoshi had added that last part as a playful jab,but the situation was making her tense and banter was the only thing that kept her calm.

Whether Yoshi noticed or not, he still smiled.

" Tell me about your family, April."

He wasn't letting this go then.

" Well…" April steepled her fingers and sat on the arm of the couch like she knew Yoshi didn't like,searching for a stealthy way to say she's living with mutants in a sewer without coming off as crazy.

" We're neighbors."

" So when you run down that manhole you're going somewhere?"

That dirty--

" If you're just going to tell me about all my secrets why did you ask?" April snapped lightly and Sensei placatingly held up his hands.

" I simply want you to know there's no reason to hide anything."

" Because you know everything already." She scoffed,eyes rolling to her bare feet.

" Because I understand."

She looked up again and Sensei was making that stupid face again. That calm,relaxed smile with eyes full of nothing but pride and love that her Dad used to give her anytime she made a dirty joke or won a science fair. Yoshi probably looked at his own daughter ,Karai,like that before she left.

She hated how uneasy and warm it made her feel.

" I know that wherever you come from everyday, you are warm,well fed and loved. Anything else is just details. As long as you are happy and safe I do not care. You could even be living in the sewers. No judgements,my child."

April paled at the last part of his statement and smiled sheepishly at the dawning horror on her Sensei's face the second he realized.

" You really live down there?"

April jumped off the couch,pointing an accusatory digit in the mans face.

" Judging! You're judging!"

" You live in the sewer?" Yoshi said again, his constant teachers facade that he usually matched Splinters intensity with keeping up fell with his shock.

" There's low property tax!" April threw out wildly.

" Is that what you want to hear? It's just where we live! Try to find something better while youre being chased by goons at 3 am after seeing' your dad's murder!"

The mood had been light up until that second and April regretted every word the second they came from her mouth. Yoshi's own had snapped shut and the pride turned to shock from seconds before morphed into horrified pity.

After their first conversation it wasn't hard to connect the dots, but April had not mentioned her dad past that night. Not to anyone,even Splinter. The sudden outburst even surprised her.

" I'm doing the best with what I got,okay?" April shrunk,hands tugging either sleeve on her hoodie.

" We'd live in a condo if we could. But we can't so we shan't." April was hoping he'd correct her grammar. Say that her shouting from training earlier earned her another hour of katas or something to break the damn tension that was making the air thick between them.

Sensei never failed to deliver.

" I suppose my next grocery list should have scented candles on it then?"

And the game was back on.

So April smiled.

 

\-----------

Two weeks later her hand was infected.

It was her own fault, really. She had simply slapped some ice on it and wrapped it up without properly checking it after she got home. Sensei had warned her too. But she was lazy and of course there was a nicely sized gash down the side that she had somehow not noticed until the morning she was curled over in pain with a fever of 103.

Well the turkey thermometer said she was kinda raw but Splinter said it was the same thing.

Splinter had been in a frenzy. Mikey had had a cold once but other than that, neither of them had a clue what to do considering the whole of their  medical knowledge consisted of eating chicken noodle soup and watching Friends.

There had been a few hours of scrambling and April saying she was fine at every turn in an effort to alleviate worry. But in truth other than the fever and arm pain, she was really fine, though she did decide to skip training that morning, with Yoshi's blessing, and take the sick day.

Normally, a sick day would be wholefully taken advantage of,  but she wasn't getting out of school and her father wasn't there to lay with her and eat ice cream all day. So she'd  offer to take on full turtle time while Splinter read through some ripped medical texts.

The trials and tribulations of being a round the clock nanny to four baby turtles.

" Ow?" Mikey asked for what had to be the seventh time in reference to the rather gross though freshly cleaned bandages around her hand.

He had four stickers on his plastron, a fire truck, two flowers and a happy face that'd she would have to peel off during his bath tonight. And the overalls he wore had a rip at the knee. More sewing to do. Great.

Yeah Monkey, big ow." April sighed,leaning a bit farther into their ratty old dump of a couch and trying to ignore the fact that she sat in the one spot that sent a spring into your spine. She was too tired to move now.

Mikey pouted and climbed up to snuggle himself against her side and pat her forearm. She smiled.

" Thanks, Mikey, that feels better now."

Mikey smiled brightly at the praise of his magic healing pats and quickly got back to business, gently patting the spot with his tiny three fingered hand with newly found gusto.

Raphael, who despite his constant grumpy face, heard the comment from his block tower across the room and wanted to get in on the attention.

What was one turtle snuggle session was quickly made two when Raph made a show of climbing over the back of the couch to trot over and plop onto April's lap. Something that Mikey would normally throw a fit over if not for his very important task.

" 's it gon' fall off?" Raph asked, prodding the reddest part of the bandage with his finger.

" Why? " April grinned, adjusting his ,well actually her, transformers t-shirt with her free hand since it had wrinkled on the crawl up.

" Wanna help me pick out a hook?"

Raph's eyes sparkled at the idea and he nodded enthusiastically. April snorted.

" Alright,bud.If it falls off you can take me hook shopping."

" Why do you have five whole fingers?" Donatello asked from his sudden position at her feet. These little guys were sneaky. Weren't turtles supposed to be slow?

" I'm human. And humans have five." April supplied, giving hers a wiggle for emphasis.

Donnie scrunched up his snout.

" We don' have five fingers. Dad don' have five fingers."

Donnie was getting very good at making sentences. The leap these guys had taken in the last few months growth wise was almost as impressive as Splinter growing five feet in almost 3 weeks.

Close. But Splinter still had the blue ribbon in that one.

" That's because you--" April poked his snout and Don stuck his tounge out in revulsion.

" --are a turtle. Turtles have three. And Splinter is a rat. He has four."

"Why?"

" 'Cuz."

" 'cuz why?"

" Donatello," April laughed. " I'm eight. I don't have all the answers. Sometimes that's just how it is."

" Yeah, stop bein' a dumb." Raph artfully insulted and Donatello looked positively hurt to his core like only a toddler could.

" He's not dumb." Leonardo defended from behind Raph and April jumped in surprise, interrupting Mikey's patting which he was very upset about judging by the high pitched whine he produced.

" I need to make you guys wear a bell." April sighed and Mikey stuck his tongue out.

" No!"

April sighed dramatically. She felt Leo take a new spot against her side opposite to Mikey while Donatello made his way up her lap to plant himself next to Raph despite his protest.

" Well fine, Mikey if you put it like that."

" Are you a mom?"

That random question, surprisingly enough, came from Leo. But Donatello, Raph and Mikey seemed suddenly just as interested in the answer. Their 30 second attention spans never ceased to amaze.

Aprils brows drew together.

" A mom or YOUR mom?"

Leo thought for a moment.

" Yes."

Well that helped.

" I don't think so." She answered honestly.

" I think a person can only be a mom if they're super old. Like 16."

" What are you, then?" Donatello asked with his head rested against her chest, fist in her shirt while he looked up with big brown eyes.

" Gra'ma." Mikey helpfully supplied, which sent a wave of howling laughter through the boys that only got worse when April played along with a scandalized expression.

" I'm not  your grandma!"

" Then what!" Leo managed through his giggle fit. He started wearing a bandana around his forehead and once again it started to slip. She'd have to fix that.

But April actually had to think. In her head, they were her boys. Not her sons or nephews or anything else. They were her boys and she was their--….April.

"…Well I guess I'm like a sister."

There was a pause of consideration, a comfortable silence. Then Leo nodded which promoted his brothers to do the same. Apparently being a big sister was acceptable. She could do that.

" Like Raph!"

April didn't know who said it, but the fury she saw on Raph's face in that exact second was real and she didn't have time to figure it out. She lept into action.

" NOPE!"

April quickly scooped up Raph and Donnie from her lap and stood up in a flourish, spinning around and blowing a loud wet raspberry on Raph's cheek.

The fart was enough to distract everyone far none.  April grinned at the sudden chorus of giggles. She turned her head and planted another one on Donatello's cheek while Raph was busy screeching and rubbing off the one he got like his face was on fire.

Feeling left out, the eldest and youngest decided the best course of action was to wrap themselves around each of her feet, a regular game they played which was now made harder with four twenty five pound turtles instead of two.

But she wasn't letting go for at least another thirty seconds , or however soon it took for their attention spans to give.

One step forward, with added heaving for the comedic effect and because the little dorks were heavy. Then another. Then-- was it normally this hot? It was a sauna in there.

The giggles suddenly meshed into a white noise that had her head reeling, and suddenly the weight in her arms and legs were gone and the boys were standing in front of her.

When did that happen?

" April?"

Leo had her unharmed hand in his, looking up with concern. Did he always look this fuzzy?

" I--I'm okay, buddy. Just a little spoozy." She slurred, hands over her eyes. It was too hot. Too bright.

"Spoozy?" Donatello repeated. There were three of him. Or was that last one Mikey?

" Yeah I just--…I gotta--"

April fell forward with a resounding thump and the pain radiated through her temple, probably a concussion, but her spinning vision was too much. She just needed to close her eyes. Just until the spinning stopped.

The last thing she registered from the floor was Raphael crying for Splinter, then it went dark.

\---

Hospital. Was her first thought.

The second, appropriate yet inappropriate was,

Oh shit

The smell hit her first, antibiotics, cleaning fluid and just a hint of barf. The next thing was all the white. If it hadn't been so dim it would have blinded her.

The bed was comfy though. And the lack of pants probably meant she was in a gown. So if it wasn't a hospital she was in heaven. She hoped not. The last thing she needed was her heaven to smell like barf.

But a hospital meant she was on the surface, and the numb feeling all over her body also meant she was on drugs.And person on the run drugged up in a hospital was the number one "you're probs gonna die" scene in every movie ever created ever. Which was much worse than barf heaven.

Deep breaths, find a way out.

April sat up slow, sore but so far so good. Her bed was next to a large bay window that gave a breathtaking view of an alleyway with, much to her discomfort, probably didn't have a manhole to run down.

The walls were bare other than a tv, the news was on and a young woman was talking about the baseball game the night before. And a clipboard with " April Hamato " written in curved writing with a jumble of text underneath that was too far to read.

Yoshi.

Yoshi brought her here. Using his last name was smart, but not enough. She was still here. And from the corners of her mind she was pretty sure she stayed home from training that day.

How the hell did Yoshi find her?

The room wasn't private but the bed next to her wasn't occupied from what she could tell. No one to recognize her. But still no Yoshi.

And the side table beside her had a remote on it. It controlled the bed, tv and had the nurse call button. A nurse was probably the worst idea in the world but so far she wasn't dead. So none of them probably worked for Sacks. Then again who could tell.

She scanned the room for something else. A weapon, scissors or best case a scalpel. But all her room had was the remote and a cup of water next to it.

Water.

Immediately forgetting she was supposed to be worried about things like poison and other surface murder techniques Sacks may use, she used her left hand to reach across and grab the cup, drinking greedily until it was empty and she took a gasping breath at the sudden relief of her dry throat that she hadn't even been aware of before.

" April."

She turned to Yoshi and the relief on his face was nearly palpable. He walked in from the empty hallway, his work suit wrinkled and disheveled on his slumped frame. He had coffee in his hand. He never drank coffee.

Yoshi scrambled and pulled a chair close to her bedside, and the midday light that filtered his face from the window made the bags forming under his eyes darker.

" What--" April paused to cough into her sleeve and was stopped by the sudden pain that spiked down her arm in a sharp bolt when she moved it. Her wincing made Yoshi frown and he gently motioned to put her hand down.

" You have eight stitches. It's going to hurt for a while."

" Eight?" April echoed then groaned, flopping her head back and regretting it instantly. A wave of nausea swept through her and it took everything she had not to blow chunks then and there.

" You need to stop moving--"

" Why did you take me here." April asked, eyes pinched shut.

" I can't be here, Yoshi. "

Yoshi sat up straight, brow set and mouth in a thin line. Here comes the ' it's more important for you to be safe and i made the best decision' speech.

" Splinter asked me."

What?

April turned, sitting up slowly with wide eyes.

" What do you mean--"

" He came to me last night."

Shit.

"Shit."

She rubbed her eyes and took a long deep breath. Her giant rat, that from Yoshi's knowledge had been a completely human uncle, had come up from the sewer with her passed out in his arms and SPOKE to him.

Great first impressions.

"….We had a long talk, April."

April blinked.

" That's the part you're starting with? The conversation? "

Yoshi smiled thinly. At least her sass was still unharmed.

" If you're family was as average as you made them out to be, you wouldn't live in a sewer."

"…You got me there."

" I do have questions." Yoshi assured, hands folded neatly in his lap.

" But for later. How are you feeling?"

April scowled.

" Barfy. And my arm feels like electric jello."

" Good description. I'm sure that will help the doctor."

April scowled harder and Yoshi laughed. He always laughed at her dumb faces. He normally didn't sound this tired.

" April--"

Yoshi frowned and April, ignoring the look of worry it got her, sat up. She didn't like his tone.

" What did you and Splinter talk about."

" We….We think it would be best if you came to live with me."

What?

Rage, confusion and sadness boiled into the pit of her stomach, butterflies burning alive until she found the nerve to speak-- to yell at how stern and set Yoshi's face was.

But nothing came out.

April took a shuttering, deep breath, remembering her techniques, and let loose the sheets she had taken in her grip that left her knuckles white and her stitches throbbing.

" This was my fault, not theirs."

" No, it was ours." Yoshi said, eyes downcast. His hair was almost as disheveled as his clothes.

" I allowed you to go back down into the sewer with an open wound. And your friend was too preoccupied with your young boys to notice your pain until it was too late."

April had turned her head away from him, refusing to look him in the eye. Until his hand placed itself over hers and made her turn back. What she saw was a caring determination all too familiar.

" I don't want to separate you from your family. I could never ask that of you. But you are human. A human girl that needs an education, a warm home and your own life."

" So what?" April almost spat.

" I just ditch them? Try to forget the guy trying to murder me?"

" You stay with me." Yoshi said slowly.

" We enroll you in a new school under my last name, and you stay with your family when you get home. Think of all you can teach your family with a proper education. Furthering yourself can only help them."

April pulled her hand back. He was right. He was so right but if she wasn't stubborn then she wasnt an O'Neil.

"….I don't want to lose them too." She nearly whispered, voice wavering.

" I need to be with them. They're my family."

"  And that's why I ask you to do this. Because you are mine too." Yoshi's voice trembled, and despite their short months together that had started as a simple kindness to a poor homeless kid, it finally hit her that Yoshi was losing another lost little girl. Another daughter.

April had almost died, hadn't she?

Hamato Yoshi was a good man. A good father.

Maybe she should finally return the favor and learn to be a good daughter again.

" And as time goes on, " Yoshi said a moment into the silence" whatever may befall us or what distance we will have to maintain, we will forever be family. All of us."

April's wide eyes welled.

Splinter played dirty.

Yoshi squeezed her hand.

" You are loved, April O'neil."

April wiped her eyes with her sleeve, and eventually, nodded.

" Okay."

\-------

 

After a day of observation, April was let go.

It was never that easy in movies, but Yoshi somehow managed to weasel his way in and out of the hospital without much question on how she got hurt or if he was her real parent.

When asked, her Sensei had cheekily winked and said it was 'an ancient Japanese secret'. Which was subsequently also his answer to many of her other questions such as 'Where do babies come from' ,'Why is the sky blue' and ' Why are you so weird' (the latter being asked directly after the formers)

If you ask her, Yoshi knew exactly who to toss a few dollars at to get them out of their, but he wouldn't admit to anything.

The ride home was silent, comfortable and warm. The car was small and April should not have been in the front seat , but she wanted the view.The surface was brighter than she remembered,but also less colorful somehow. It wasn't as appealing.

" I can go home when we get back to your house right?" April asked through a mouthful of milkshake that was the best thing to bless her tastebuds in months. One of their many stops on the way back, including the grocery store,Target and Footlocker, had been Burger King.

One thing she did miss, Icecream.

" Of course." Yoshi complied, peering at her for a moment at a stop light. April memorized each street name as they passed and how many sewer grates were on each one.

" Let your family know you're alright. They're probably worried sick."

April looked down at her shoes. They probably were. The last thing the boys saw of her,she was passed out on the ground in a cold sweat which wasn't exactly the most pleasing way to see someone who just earned the title of their big sister.

She should have stolen more stuff from the hospital as presents.

Yoshi pulled up in front of the house. April made a mad scramble to unbuckle herself and throw open the door,but was stopped by the lock shutting down again.

" uh, Sensei? " April turned to him and Yoshi had turned to her as well.

" Let Splinter know they are always welcome in our home when you tell them."

April blinked then slowly smiled,nodding.

" Yeah, sure."

" And April?"

" Yeah?"

" Pizza tonight?" He asked and April turned the same shade as her little brothers.

" Please, no." She whispered in horror and Yoshi laughed,unlocking her door. An opportunity she gladly took to jump out of the car and sprint down the alleyway, forgetting to be careful in the ice and snow.

" Be careful!" Yoshi called from the window.

And April waved him off with a grin.

" No promises!"

Then jumped down.

Home

\---

April had ran so fast her new blinking shoes couldn't even light up fast enough to match her pace.

Only two days away and she couldn't wait to be back underground. The gross, wet, dirty underground where it was always the same musky temperature of 76, everything you used had some kind of stain on it and the only non-artificial light came from a hole in the wall made by a tree that was currently losing leaves in her room and making it impossible to sleep without the sunrise in her eyes no later than five am.

Where her boys were.

Where Splinter woke her up every morning with a smile and a cup of tea that he gladly traded his own breakfast for when she complained ,just to mess with her. And the afternoons together were filled with training and laughter.

Where Leonardo would beg to practice with them and be like her for hours despite her constant denials of his requests, and yet was the first to jump up next to her on the couch on movie nights.

Where Raphael would scream and break her things until he was red in the face and secretly climb under her blankets at night just the same.

Where Donatello would demand at least four books be read to him a day even though he was already reading,just because he liked the sound of her voice.

And where Mikey would cry for hours over not getting his way only to smile the second she'd walk in the room.

Where she was home.

The tunnel curved and the familiar chalk drawings that covered the walls,pizza and stick figured turtle creatures fighting dinosaurs in capes, made a huge smile split across her face until the second the reached the familiar tunnel opening and turnstiles that was their front door. Then that grin turned into a smile.

They were all there,huddled on their crappy couch watching something on their crappy wind up tv. Garbage from lunch huddled in the corner and the smell of sewer mixed with many of their intense scented candles in the damp air.

Shed never seen something so beautiful.

April ran in and it took all her willpower to stop halfway to them and open her arms dramatically, dropping her plastic bag full of presents to the floor with a thump that echoed through the sewer to yell,

" Honey, I'm home!"

She barely had time to kneel before she was tackled onto her back by the source of the chorus of high pitched "April!"s that were screeched at her.

Her cheeks were grabbed by tiny three fingered hands, and suddenly she was nose to beak with Mikey.

" Are you dead?!" Mikey asked very loud and distressed. April couldn't smile any brighter if she tried.

" No!" And to prove it, she grabbed his little face and pressed a big kiss on his forehead which assured him enough to quickly latch himself around her neck.

" Aw, It didn't fall off?" Raph suddenly piped up,holding her arm tightly in a hug despite his crude statement.

" Sadly no." She teased and kept her other arm wrapped around half of Mikey, and as much as she could of Donnie and Leo who were squeezing her from either side with their heads on her chest.

" But I went up to the hospital and got eight stitches." She grinned.

" Wanna see?"

That got three excited 'yeah!'s and a noise from Mikey who refused to budge while his older brothers moved off to let April sit up.

This angle let April see Splinter, who stood a bit off to the side with a look of relief and a calm smile. When she took off her bandage, ignoring the chorus of 'ew!'s, she flashed the healing wound to him too.

" See?" She showed the boys then made met Splinters gaze.

" I'm all better."

" Can I touch it?"

All eyes went to Donnie who shrunk back immediately.

" F-For science...."

" You're gross." Raph said snootily and April gently shoved his shoulder.

"Hey! Turtles who are mean to their brothers don't get presents." April said.

Mikey lept off her at that, eyes wide and jumping in excitement. That or he had to pee. It was a toss up.

" We get presents?!"

" You do!" April booped his nose and she grabbed her earlier discarded bag and the turtles crowded around her.

" We got...." she shuffled through the bag for dramatic effect.

" Tiny pirate swords!" Cocktail skewers shaped like swords she took from the hospital cafeteria. At least two handfuls. Raph had the pile out of her hands and in his lap in seconds.

" A heart…listener. Thing." She held up the stethoscope and Donnie grabbed it like it like she was dangling a million dollars in front of him. Which she might be. Most things in the Hospital looked expensive so who knew.

" A soccer ball." She actually found that in the ride home. But they didn't need to know that. And from the look on Leo's face when she handed it over, he wouldn't care.

"And….This guy!"

Mikey gasped, tiny hands flying up to theatrically cover his mouth before he gently took the soft brown teddy bear April was holding.

Yoshi insisted he got it for her from their stop at Target. Unbeknownst to him, it was a spitting image of the one she had had at home when she was born. Black button eyes,soft brown fur and a pink nose in the shape of a heart that matched the heart stitched onto its stomach. She loved it.

But the look on Mikeys face made her love it even more when it was his.

God she was head over heels for these little twerps.

" You should get sick all the time!"

This time four pairs of surprised faces (and one look of horror from Splinter) were directed at Michaelangelo. Who himself was barely paying attention to anything other than he new toy until the silence made him turn back to the group and clarify.

" Only a little sick."

" We got it, Mikey." Leo said with a deadpan sass to his brooklyn accent that made April proud.

Splinter was eyeing her now. She knew about his talk with Yoshi and he was nervous, no doubt, about her reaction. He'd also broken the unspoken number one rule of 'don't reveal yourselves to humans'. Even if it was for her own good and it was Yoshi, it was a threat to everyone.

And despite her youth, she had a bit of sway about the rules in the lair. She was the one who knew the upper world. She's the one who had taught Splinter the ins and outs of being a person. And even though he was the boy's father, and he was the wisest and the strongest, she had the street smarts. And she was the one being hunted. It all fell back on her.

" Why don't you guys go play. Splinter and I gotta gossip." She said with a flick of her head towards the open lowered pit in the center of the lair where the tv sat.They didn't need to be asked twice.

Splinter walked forward and offered his hand,  carefully looking her in the eyes, hopeful. In an effort to ease his worries April offered him a smile in return and let him pull her to her feet by her good hand.

" How are you feeling?" Splinter asked after a careful beat of silence.

" Much better. Really." April assured, sparing a quick glance towards the boys who payed them no mind in return.

" I talked with Yoshi. He told me what you talked about."

Splinter had the sensibility to bow his head a bit, prepared for her stubborn backlash. But at the same time, his eyes left no room for disagreement of their decision. He wouldn't relent.

If anything, her hard headedness had been inherited.

" I'll go."

His head rose in surprise and April shrugged, hands in her pockets and gaze on her new shoes.

" I can do more for you guys up there. I can go back school and get the boys some books, I can learn more with Yoshi to show you…." She met his eyes again and smiled, albeit weakly.

" Yoshi kinda sold me on it."

She watched Splinter take a deep breath, nodding quickly with the rising emotion in his chest. His hands never moved from their casual resting position behind his back, but he didn't need to physically show his joy and relief anymore. She could see it.

" That's good."

It was small, but Splinter had never been very quiet on his opinion of her going to the surface. So it was enough.

" I'll still be around. You can't get rid of me that easy." April said playfully, nudging Splinter with her elbow.

" I would never allow that." He said with a smile. And a shriek from the pit across of from them made them both move their gaze towards the boys, who were using the bear and the soccer ball as warriors to have tiny sword fights.

" Will you tell them?" Splinter asked, watching Donatello in the far corner listening to own heartbeat with a look of wonder rather than rough housing.

" Should I?" April asked, looking away from Raphael despite his being about thirty seconds from tackling his older brother.

Splinters mouth thinned to a line and he took a breath through his nose.

" They were worried about you. They have been taking shifts watching the door for hours at a time to see you home."

It's enough to send a wave of emotion up into her throat. So April just cleared it and nodded, starting her way over to the boys and taking a seat on the floor.

Mikey, Leo and Raph don't budge at first, head to head in a game of leapfrog with the bear as the jumper, which doesn't seem to be going well. But Donatello stopped almost immediately and clamored  over to her lap and pressed his stethoscope to her chest and listened. April took a deep breath, like they used to make her do during doctor visits, and watched his face light up like Time Square.

" Hey, guys. I gotta tell you something."

Gently, she moved the plugs away from Donnie's ears in time for Leo to understand it was time to stop and shove his younger brothers over to April.

" Do we get more presents?" Mikey asked hopefully and April snorted. It made Mikey pout but only for a second.

" No. If I give you stuff all the time it wouldn't be special."

" I don't care if they're special." Raph assures and April rolled her eyes.

" This isn't about presents."

" Aw."

"I wanted you guys to know that…I'm going to be going up top more." April explains slowly and catches a peak of Splinter from the corner of her eye, listening.

" Like when you get food?" Leo questions and April decides to go with it.

" Kinda. I'm going to start school. So I can take care of you guys better."

" Can we go to school?" Donnie asks with a newfound excitement and it almost hurts April to say anything otherwise.

" Not up top. But if I go, I can bring school to you guys too."

" You're gonna leave again?"

That makes each turtle match a sullen, heartbreaking expression and April suddenly wanted to take it all back and stay down with them forever. And this was apparent, because Splinter was suddenly by his side, smiling down at the boys and a hand in her shoulder to keep her grounded.

"No. She will be gone in the afternoons. But return home to us as always, child." Splinter explained slowly and it was enough to keep any tears at bay.

" School sounds 'tupid." Raphael suddenly spat and April sighed, crossing her arms and playing coy.

" Well I guess you won't get any cool school presents."

Mikey gasped in excitement and Raph huffed, pointing an accusatory digit towards her nose.

" You liar! It is about presents!"

And then they were off.

The next went by smoothly and by the time dinner came around, she couldn't bring herself to leave so soon. After a conformation from Yoshi, she spent the night down below. Helping Splinter clean after two days worth of toddler build up, playing with the boys who seemed more than happy to take up every second of her time as they could which April was more than happy to give.

By the time everyone was in bed, April had cleared out everything but the mattress in her room and placed her whole world in a small duffel by the door.

The tree was starting to attempt at growing leaves again, and she took up a few hours of her sleepless night staring through the open space in the branches where moonlight was just showing through. She wasn't sure where the tree was exposed up top, but it let in clean air and made the room glow.

She'd give Splinter first dibs once she moved out. He deserved the quiet open space.

A creak in the corner of the room was the only sign before a small hand was gently touching her shoulder. Instinctively, April pulled back her blanket and watched a small shelled body snuggle its way into her side. When she looked down, the eyes that peered back were blue.

" You okay, Leo?" She barely whispered. Sounds carried easily in the lair to anyone besides her.

" Are you really leaving?" Leonardo mumbled from the crook of her neck and April leaned her head on his, her hair making a crimson halo around them both.

Raphael was the snuggler. Despite his bad boy, rock of an outer shell, he craved the attention his brothers took. And normally, he was the one climbing into her room at night to tell her about his day, more animated than he'd be around anyone else, then konk out wrapped her around her middle by two am.

Mikey would come in when Raph didn't. He still had their pre-mutation habit of playing with her hair and for once, just liked to lay with her and be silent. Splinter would come in and take him back most nights,  but more often than not she woke up with a chunk of her hair in his hand and drool on her shirt where he laid his head.

Donatello wasn't a very physically affectionate  person, but once or twice, on the days the big bold personalities of his brothers were too much, he'd camp out with her to escape. To have his own space where he could think despite that this should be his playful age.

Leo was the eldest. He was always the one to realize he had to make an example of himself for his younger siblings and his entry to her room at all was at best case nearly non-existent.

They'd all grown so much in the almost year they'd been together. The boys, whatever age they were at this point, were so much smarter and stronger than what she ever could have imagined. They understood more than she gave them credit for.

So April nodded.

" I'm going to go up with Yoshi."

She moved her eyes from where they had drifted back to the moonlight and saw Leonardo was looking there too.

" I'm never going to leave you."

" I know."

April swallowed and watched the rise and fall of Leo's plastron. He had on some sweatpants to sleep in and his favorite blue bandanna was loose around his neck.

" Did I scare you? When I got sick?"

His breathing took a brief pause, then it moved again smoothly into its average pattern. In, out, in ,out.

Leo didn't seem tense or uncomfortable. Just in deep, deep thought that she probably wouldn't understand. He had the making of his father's wisdom in his blossoming mind, and a type of genius that didn't touch his younger brothers book smarts. He was understanding his own emotions before he fully comprehended what they were. And most adults had yet to fathom that.

" A little."

April pulled him in closer.

" I'm sorry."

"It's 'kay."

After a beat, April sat up and could feel Leo's eyes on her back while she moved over to her bag and shuffled through the minimal contents. She climbed back in and laid down, but Leo didn't, instead staring at the contents of her hands.

Carefully, she took her little brother's arm and slid her power ranger watch around his wrist. He sat on his knees by her side, staring and fingering the plastic until she slid her finger against the clear surface. He looked like she had given him the moon on a string.

" My dad gave that to me." She patted the space next to her and he layed down again, still staring at his wrist like the watch would disappear.

" I'll be home everyday by three unless I tell you somethin' different. This way, you can always know when I'm coming home."

April tapped the three, etched in along with the nine, six and twelve in bright red. Leonardo, after a moment, nodded and closed his eyes with a smile pushed into the crook of her neck.

She watched him for a few minutes until she was sure he was asleep, then followed suit

\----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (( I'm way too excited to get this entire thing out so have another update! We have plenty more coming. Comments and Kudos are really appreciated!))


	3. The Day She Went Back

April started school two weeks later.

Yoshi had dealt with all the paperwork himself and had a friend use his 'ancient Japanese secrets' to fudge the documents enough so she could go without leaving too much of a trail.

She was actually pretty sure that Yoshi had just adopted her and was trying not to rub it in, despite asking.

" Like, legally?" She had asked over a bowl of dollar store ramen that Yoshi still sneered at when he thought she wasn't looking. She didn't care, it was good.

" Yes." He had said, slowly, careful with his words. April was surprised he had even mentioned anything.

" It will help with the process. And I would enjoy having you as my family." A cheeky smile.

" Legally."

She had smiled back and slurped her noodles loud enough to make Yoshi gag and it was settled.

They found a crowded public school a few blocks down from the house, and a with a manhole that connected to the same system as the lair just to make her feel better.  
She'd be starting the 5th grade mid way through the third marking period, but her test scores from the year before were more than enough to prove she would be able to slide into the curriculum just fine.

So by 8:30 Monday morning , April was sitting outside the overflowing middle school parking lot in Yoshi's old ford taurus, frowning at the children in colorful backpacks that paid her no mind as they passed.

" Are you nervous?" Yoshi asked and April looked back at him, tension in her seat.

" Not for the reasons I should be."

She knew he didn't fully believe in her fear of Sacks. She didn't blame him, it was crazy to hear. But so was the idea of her family being sewer mutants and he'd been convinced of that pretty quickly. So he didn't take it lightly but wasn't sending her into witness protection either. A few google searches was enough to prove her father's death, even if it did say he died in the fire. But she knew better. Eventually so would he.

Still, she doubted they'd assassinate her at school.

" You'll be fine." Yoshi assured and leaned over to kiss her temple.

April smiled weakly and with a final deep breath, got out of the car.

\---

School was really really boring in comparison to the lair. At least at home she had four tiny shells full of constant trouble to keep her on her toes. But the most interesting thing to happen had been one kid puking in lunch after a boy around her age with long black hair spewed milk out his nose onto his tray of barely edible mac and cheese.

  
The classes were laughable. Yoshi hadn't wanted to rush her into anything after her leave of absence, but at that point she' been learning the same things over and over anyway and it wasn't anything she didn't already know.

If anything, Donatello could get some use out of her textbooks.  
One welcomed difference was that they changed classes rather than staying with one teacher. Which was a nice because it gave her a few minutes to text Splinter on the burners Yoshi had offered after she moved in, just so she could check.

It was a little comfort-- knowing they could get in touch with her if need be. It was a small source of security in the sea of uncertainty.  
But one fault to letting kids roam free in the halls was that fights broke out.

Like a lot.

She'd seen two so far, a small group of eighth grade girls screaming over something she hadn't been able to make out and two boys , one from her grade and one from seventh that started hitting each other when someone started throwing around the a curse that even she wasn't so keen on repeating.

Other than those few bouts of pubescent anarchy, it'd been calm. No one said anything to her beside a few girls who asked about her hair, complimenting its shade of red then turning back to their friends and giggling in a non-friendly way.

Normally her hair got a bit of attention. It was a odd, bright and nearly fluorescent shade to be a natural color. But it was just like her moms and usually one family photo was enough to prove herself.  
Mostly, it wasn't a big deal.

Then she bumped the kid with black hair from lunch and he scoffed.

" Watch it ,Red."

She didn't like that.

So was the start of fight number three.

" Don't call me Red." She spat, just enough, then moved forward to keep walking until she saw the girl he had against the locker. He wasn't holding her there, but she was shrunk into herself enough to see that they were fighting and he was the angry one.

So she turned back.

" Are you okay?" April asked the girl.

Her hair was a short brown bob and her eyes were brown under her large rimmed glasses. Her hands were gripping the edges of her purple dress nervously.  
She opened her mouth to speak and the boy talked over her.

" Mind your own business, Newbie."

April didn't acknowledge him and kept looking at the girl whose eyes were now flicking back and forth between the two of them. The boy was still squawking behind her but she kept looking at her until her eyes stayed on hers.

" I'm okay." Her response was meek so April nudged her head towards the open hall.

" Want me to walk you to class?"

The girl blinked owlishly then smiled.

" I--"

" I said mind your own business--"

If anyone asked, April would have said it was instinct after all these months of training. But when his hand grabbed her shoulder, she completely registered every second it took to flip the boy onto his back. It took two. And she enjoyed each one.

There was a stunned silence in the hall when his back smacked against the linoleum but it was all galking students, so instead of shying away like she should of, April stood over the boy and sneered.  
His blue eyes were wide with shock and his mouth was dropped open wide enough that she could see his missing teeth. His long black hair was clean and tucked beneath a do-rag that looked like it'd seen more fights than he had. And his shirt was a rumpled hockey jersey, worn from use rather than age.

" Do not touch me." Was all April said, cool and collected, before walking away with her head held high. She paused for just a second to look back expectantly and the short girl against the locker broke into a huge smile, stepped over the gaping boy without a second thought then sprinted to join her stride.

" My names Irma." Irma said a few seconds into the walk and April matched her smile.

" April."  
\---

Irma liked science and death metal.

Her favorite color was purple but black was a close second and she was an only child, split between her mom and Dad's house since they got divorced last June.

She was short, so two periods into knowing each other Irma said the only reason they were now friends was so she had someone to reach the high shelves and they both laughed until they got shushed by their shared fifth period math teacher.

April now had a friend and a reputation. The kid she flipped turned out to be this star hockey player in the school. A punk show boater who always had a way of thinking himself better than others because he could hit a puck harder than most people. No one had the guts to say anything about his off and on again bouts of rage until she showed up.

" He's not a bad guy." Irma said through a mouthful of peanut butter and jelly at break.

" He's just Casey Jones."

The way her voice lilted at the name was an impression that April didn't understand until she walking home after school that afternoon.

" Who are you supposed to be anyway?"

April didn't even break stride. But the kid, Casey Jones, didn't relent and matched her pace, eyes narrowed on suspicion more than anything else. Odd, since she'd kicked his ass that afternoon.

April sighed.

" I don't know. Who are you supposed to be?"

Casey snorted and preened, grinning from ear to ear like it was a compliment for her to ask.

" I'm Casey Jones."

Looking back, Irma's impression was spot on. She got the smug douchery of his tone just right.

" I heard."

Casey's grin lessened to a more casual smirk and a raised eyebrow finished the look. There was a small scar at the end of the left brow that separated the hair in two parts.

" So you've heard of me."

April lifted an eyebrow in return.

" Oh yeah. Aren't you the kid with the rich dentist?"

Jones suddenly stopped mid-stride in thought and after a moment and swipe of his tongue over his multiple missing teeth, he barked out a laugh and ran to catch up with her.

" That was funny! You're funny, Red."

April peered at his feet, converse sneakers scuffed and a hole around the toe covered in duct tape, and took pity on him long enough to slow down so they were walking together instead of one chasing the other.

" Don't call me Red." April flicked her eyes up to his face. He had a bandaid on his cheek that stretched every time he smiled. And despite the gaps, he had a nice one.

" Well what am I supposed to call ya?"

A pause.

" April."

" Casey."

April grinned and eyed him.

" I know."

Casey scrunched his nose for a second then held out his hand for her to shake. April stopped walking at the same moment as him and looked at it. A few bandaids on each finger and dirt under his short nails and hoodie sleeve.

She shook it with a hard grip that he had almost tried to beat.

" So you a ninja or somethin'?"

April paled.

"What?"

" You kinda flipped me like a sack of potatoes today." Which he illustrated by making a flipping motion with his hand then an explosion with wiggly fingers. The tension in her shoulders visibly lessened.

" I'm not apologizing for that. You were a jerk to Irma." April said and Casey actually had the decency to look sheepish.

" Yeah I know. I kinda got a temper on me."

April crossed her arms under her chest and leveled a look at him.

" I've seen worse."

" Little brother?"

"…How'd you know?"

" I got a little sister. It's either the screamer or the crier and boys are usually the screamers. Trust me." Casey said in such an exasperated and dramatic way that she had to laugh. It made a smile break out on Casey's face. The sight made her quickly clear her throat, but she didn't cover her own smile.

" So why'd you follow me, Jones?"

" Well to say sorry about being a jerk. And uh--" Jones fumbled with his bag strap then met her eyes with a hopeful grin.

" I was kinda hopin' you could show me how you did that sweet flip thing. I mean, I got like three inches on you and you look like-- well I mean you're super hot but that's not----like your small but not like tiny I mean not that that's bad. All bodies are beautiful or whatever--"

April watched Casey stumble over himself, cheeks lighting up a rather nice shade of scarlet for another few seconds before she took pity and put a hand on his shoulder.

" Stop talking."

"Thank you."

" Firstly, as much as I'd enjoy beating you up some more, I'm not allowed to teach that stuff." Sensei almost had her head for training Splinter without his okay, and that took three weeks of schmoozing on its own to be forgiven. A random school kid would have her on Dojo clean up for months.  
Casey visibly deflated and April found herself wanting to double back. She should honestly have an immunity to the puppy eyes by now.

" But…"

She didnt. And Casey perked again.

" Maybe a few moves. But I won't explain. Just the show."

That seemed to do it. Casey smiled the biggest grin she'd ever seen and suddenly she was wrapped up in a tight squeeze, feet an inch off the ground and arms plastered to her sides by pure ten year old muscle.

" Sweet! You're the best, Red!"

April managed to look up from the full body choke hold he had her in and flash a struggling smile which made him drop her like she was on fire. But Casey was still smiling anyway.

" Sorry, I'm a lover."

Then he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and April turned on her heel and walked home without another word. She heard Casey laughing behind her for another block , along with a final shout of 'Call me!' and she'd deny it to this day that the smile that stuck with her the for the rest of the afternoon was because of him.  
Because it totally wasn't.  
\---

She ran through the turnstiles of the lair just in time for Leonardo's watch to beep. Leonardo himself was waiting, arms crossed a few feet from the door the second she ran in. He reminded her of about every sitcom father ever, waiting at the door for their daughters after a night of partying.

" See? I told you home by three." April smiled and Leo's stern expression did not budge, but seemed satisfied enough with her kept promise to meet her halfway for a hug. It took a little strength, but she managed to lift him up onto her hip like only their father had been able to do as of late despite their small size.

" How was school?" Leo asked vaguely interested  and watched her shrug off her bag next to the couch before she took a seat next to Mikey ,who was too busy staring starry eyes into his palms to notice either of them.

" Super boring. No turtles." She said honestly which made Leo fill with tiny pride. The little twerps knew they were the light of her life.

April noticed Mikey, still indisposed and tried to peer around his shoulder to see what he was cradling do gingerly.

" What cha' got there, monkey?"

Blinking out of his haze of excitement, Mikey turned and held out his hands and the bloody baby tooth inside , smiling so brightly that she nearly missed the giant purpling bruise on his cheek and lower jaw.

" I lost a toof!" Mikey squealed around his new lisp and April's stomach dropped out from under her.

" oh my-- Mikey!" She took his cheek in her hands and ran her thumb over the tender bruised skin, still as scaley and rough around the green flush of the unharmed area as it usually was. Mikey didn't seem to feel a thing.

" What happened?" Was the only rational thing she could get out around the spike of anger that clouded her judgement almost immediately. Whatever happened, it was probably an accident. But god she never wanted to see that shade of black and blue on any of her baby brothers again as long as she lived.

" Raphael punched him." Leonardo tattled like a hood little daddy's boy and Mikey whined so she let him go.

" Why?" April turned to Leo and noticed the light coming from her old room and the absence of Splinter, Donatello and Raphael all at the same time.

A sentencing.

" I 'unno." Leo supplied not too helpfully and the moment April stood up Mikey scrambled over to show his tooth to his eldest brother for what had to be the third time or so by the roll of Leonardo's eyes and the put upon ' I know, Mikey' she heard before she walked into her old room.

Splinter was seated on his knees,the judgment position that all the little boys had come to fear, looking down at Raphael who had his head bowed and didn't seem to want to change the look on his father's face if he glanced up. Donatello was by his side, blankly helping wrap gauze around the bruised knuckles of his older brother.

Raphael was the obvious suspect if the hand hadn't been a dead give away. He'd always had a mean streak to match his temper tantrums, but he was quick to fold and never actually hurt anyone besides the hair pulling incident that she still had a bald spot from hidden under the thickness. And it had seemed to scar Raph subliminally enough to not play rough around her ,even though he didn't remember why.

" Hey." April said as a sign of entry into the uncomfortable silence and moved to sit next to Splinter, who kept his eyes on Raph. The turtle seemed to shrink in further at the sound of her voice.

" Raphael hit his brother."  Splinter said in lieu of his regular greeting. Which was her cue to play good cop, because apparently the bad cop badge was already clipped on and it wasn't coming off.

Splinter had always been a very peaceful soul despite his strength and power in the dojo. The thought of the boys hurting one another on purpose probably sat worse with him then it did with her.

" I heard." April said slowly, flicking her eyes to Donatello who shrugged in a way that said 'hell if I know' when they made eye contact. He was there for his very minimal medical knowledge that still surpassed his father's and that was it.

She was quickly learning his brain came with sass.

" Why'd you hit Mikey, Raph?"

Raphael opened his mouth and Splinters ear twitched. He hadn't gotten anything out of him yet then. She always did have a way with his false rage.

Raph closed his mouth again and his eyes finally drew up from his feet to look at them both. Another moment of tag team disappointment seemed to do the trick and Raphael's shoulders slouched.

" It was an acciden'. " Raph mumbled. When Donatello finished, April jerked her chin towards the door and he seemed to take the hint, trotting out to meet his brothers who were probably spying from just beyond the doorway going by how quiet it was on the other side.

" What were you doing that made you accidentally punch your brother?" Splinter asked a little more accusatory than he normally would of. But good cop bad cop usually had a bit of over exaggeration on either end to even each other out.

Raphael huffed and looked up at April hopefully. She didn't budge and he sighed in defeat.

" Punchin' stuff."

April resisted the urge to groan in frustration and Splinter had to close his eyes and take a breath to collect himself until Raph quickly tried to back pedal at their reactions.

" I was playin' around! I was tryin' to do what's you and April do but Mikey got in the way!"

" You were trying to do Ninjutsu?" April asked and Raph nodded quickly.

" It was an accident!"

Splinter remained quiet but for the first time he turned to her and raised a brow in question. April looked over at Raph then back to him with a pitying look and Splinter's ears drooped. The silent ruling had been made.

" Apologize to your brother. No dessert for two days. No more Ninjitsu." Splinter finally declared and Raph looked appalled and ready to argue until April shot him a face saying' I can't help you if you open your mouth' that he read loud and clear.

Raphael nodded mutely and walked off and out of the living room that was suddenly full noise the second he entered.

Splinter released a deep withering breath through his nose then turned to April.

" How was school?"

April snorted and leaned back on her hands.

" Seriously?"

His obvious deflection a failure, Splinter ran his hands worriedly over a long patch of hair under his chin that she thought he was trying to grow into some sort of beard.

" I do not wish for them to learn such violence."

" You know it's not just that." April countered.

" To Raphael it is." Splinter said sullenly.

" To Leonardo, it may be a form of peace. Michaelangelo may enjoy the sport. Donatello would  find comfort in the rhythmic moment. We seek it's knowledge for protection of those we love. But they are children. And learning to protect means learning there is a world of things to fear. To be protected from."

April could see where he was coming from. They were freaks  to the human world. And whatever they learned now about how to handle themselves would effect their place in society. One wrong move could make them true monsters to those who didn't understand, so why give them the means to harm someone? Even if it was so much more.

" We could show them how to do it right." April pried, trying to meet his dark eyes from the far off look they were keeping.

" One day. Let them know that with great power comes great responsibility."

Splinter blinked back to her.

" That is very wise, April."

" It's from Spider-Man." She admitted and he smiled,  waving her off.

" Wise none the less."

"Do you think you ever would? Teach them?"

Splinter didn't answer but he stood and April did the same. They walked to the edge of the doorway and looked out at the boys who'd seem to have forgotten all ill will and had gotten a pillow from Mikey's room and were debating on putting the tooth in or under the pillow,  and if trapping the Tooth Fairy would be a good idea or not.

" I do not wish to steal their innocence as yours was stolen from you."

April's stomach clenched. It wasn't meant to be an insult, it was just the truth. But 'I don't want them to end up as broken as you.' Was just as harsh a truth as a jab.

Splinter placed a hand on her shoulder and the feeling was gone.

" You all deserve better."

Later, April found out it was April 1st.

It was her birthday and she was 9 years old.


	4. The Day She left

It took two years.

From the moment April ran to the sewers with the last of her father's hope for a new world tucked in her arms, to the second Casey dropped her off at home after a trip to the skating rink that hot summer afternoon when she was ten.

It took two years for them to find her.

Casey had become her best friend.

She wore his jerseys to school the day before games to support his team and he taught her how to ice state without a support cone to hold her weight. She tutored him in Math and Science and he would fail the mile with her in gym so she wasn't the last one to finish.

By 6th grade, they were thick as thieves. Yoshi had a good natured dislike for any boy in her life, but gladly welcomed him into their home for dinner and a sleepover whenever Sophie's, his little sisters, mom came to take her for the weekend and his own father was a little too drunk and too loud for him to feel safe at night.

He didn't pry about how he never saw her before mentioned little brothers, and was more than happy to be a punching bag for her when Yoshi let him sit in on training sessions.

Casey was rough and tumble with a heart full of so much anger and love that he didn't know how to separate the two. He'd shove her in the dirt after a good joke and she'd been the only one to laugh and swipe his feet out from under him.

Since they day she left him flat assed on the tile at school, they'd meet up on saturdays. That day, it was almost 102° out and after two hours of laying face first on Yoshi's floor under the nearly non-existant breeze of the celing fan, their childish constant energy had won and they had decided to see if the ice rink wasn't as swarmed as they knew it was going to be.

April and Casey stopped at the parking lot. The nearly two acres of space the lot took up was bumper to bumper with cars, and anything else that could even count as space with lined with bikes, leaning on eachother and chained together in a last stitch attempt at protection or a very large game of make shift dominos.

" You've gotta be shitting me." Casey moaned. The sweat was accumulating at the back of his neck and the only reason she could see was because of the high bun she had to forced him into about an hour ago. He had snickered about their matching hairstyles until she threatened to tye it with bow.

" It's the only constantly air conditioned joint in town." April said, waving out the bottom of her loose tank top to let in the cool air that didn't exist in the humidity.

" We knew we were setting ourselves up for disappointment."

" You're so pessimistic." Casey said, lifting his arm to elbow her but giving out half way and barely brushing their fingertips.

" Big words for a man who tried to wear a pair of booty shorts out today."

Casey squawks indignantly, something about 'athletic spandex briefs' and even in the grueling heat she manages to throw her head back to laugh. Casey gets through his movement this time and nearly shoves her into the pavement but she grabs his arm instead and holds on for support .

Casey suddenly stops and when April looks up, cheek pressed against his shoulder, his mouth is pinched shut tight and his cheeks are flushed in a way that's not the heat.

April drops him and steps back.

" Sorry."

" Wha-- N-No! I wasn't--" Casey scrambles for something to say, hand rising and falling like he's trying to touch her then deciding against it. And April just watches him , unsure of what to do or say until Casey's arms fall at his sides and he clears his throat.

The sound only makes them both realize how alone they are on the barren street. The echo of cicadas the only hum to the normally bustling area of town other than Casey's broken attempts at starting his next sentence and some kids screeches of joy around a fire hydrant spewing a few blocks over.

" That was fine." Casey sputters eventually.

" That was-- I mean it's super hot and we're super sweaty so it was kinda gross but--"

" Casey." April says in a way they've both determined to mean 'Stop before you hurt yourself,Jones' and Casey clams up without his usual witty retort to her pity.

Instead he throws an an arm around her shoulders stiffly and starts leading them back towards her place. It's casual and even in the scorching sunlight that makes bare skin on bare skin feel like a cat's tongue on sunburn, it's comfortable. The awkwardness is forgotten.

" Your brothers got some fans were they at?" Casey asks suddenly and April starts focusing on stepping over cracks in the sidewalk. She has no mothers back to break but you can never be too careful.

" They don't need 'em." She says easily.

" They're practically cold blooded. They like a little heat."

" Where they at?" Casey asks. April looks up from her feet. Casey meets her eyes like most people wouldn't on a presumably touchy subject. She likes that about him.

" My old place. With their Dad."

" Why don't you live with them?"

" Someone's gotta keep Yoshi company. He'd have turned into a sudoku puzzle by now if I hadn't shown up."

Casey snorts at that and they round a corner. This street is quieter than the last but neither of them notice. Her house is one block over.

" He's old. You gotta let the oldies succumb to their primal urges to do crosswords. It's like-- a law."

" You plan on becomin' a cop anytime soon,Jones?"

Casey looks like she just slapped him across the face and April has to bite down on her cheek hard to keep her cool exterior. He has no qualms with police, but he had always had a thing about superheroes and vigilantes. They idea he'd follow the law in any way or form to get the job done even sounds comical to her.

" Hell no."

" Then I'm safe another day." April grins cheekily.

It's four thirty two and the sun is just barely setting, but there's a cool air that had been slowly sweeping across the city for hours that settles once they cross to the next block and see Yoshi's apartment.

It's the same shade of mint green it'd been when they left it, chipping paint on the side walls and off white water stained trim that clashed with the stark white they'd repainted door that spring, and the tan cement that made up the small front porch, bordered by black metal railings that protected you from barely two feet of a drop ,were still standing.

There were still two bushes by either side of the front walk with wilting buds on the left side from an incident involving her giant Rat and late night gardening , and Angie's Pizza was still to the right of the alley while Janowski's Dental Practice stood to the left of the house.

Yoshi's car was still parked on the street.

Their upstairs neighbor's cat was still on the window sill,watching.

The lid to the sewer was still closed.

But something was wrong.

" You good, Red?"

April snapped her head up at Casey and let out the breath that'd been caught in her throat when she spoke.

" Yeah." She said, too breathy and too tense.

" Yeah. Just--- Can you hang out here for a sec?"

Casey's brow drew together in concern, but only followed her as far to as the porch. April paused at the door and looked for something, anything that looked as wrong as it felt. But hovering her hand over the door handle was making Casey's shoulders tense beside her. So she opened it.

" Yoshi?" She called out before walking through the threshold. The house was too quiet.

" I'm home--"

" April. We have a guest."

Erik's Sacks's face lit up like a time square on New Year's Eve when she walked in.

The pure utter delight that radiated when he stood up from the couch and practically ran to embrace her made every muscle in her body turn to stone. Her head was screaming to run run run  but her feet were nailed to the ground.He cradled her head under his neck, murmuring 'thank god’s’ and ' I thought we'd lost you too's into her hair with a hand held firmly on her back. His expensive cologne was putrid.

Her knees wouldn't stop shaking. The world was rimmed in white and the only thing that kept that kept her withering breath going was the sudden realization that made her absolutely sure the gun he had in his belt ,barley pressing against her thigh, was for them.

He'd come alone. No hired thugs. No strings.

No witnesses.

" Mr. Sacks." April barely managed to whisper around her tight throat. To him it sounded like shock. Not blinding fear.

Sacks pulled back from the hug with a comforting,kind smile, cradling her cheeks in his hands then placing a kiss on her crown. He was playing it up so well.

" I thought we lost you. God April, I haven't seen you since the fire."

" I got out." April croaked. The sweat in her eyes looked like tears and Sacks clucked his tongue while he wiped them from her paled cheeks.

" I'm so sorry about your father,April." Sacks rolled off his knees and stood, forgetting the now carefully rumpled state of his suit to turn back to Yoshi. He was standing now and only a few feet away with locked shoulders and a stiff smile.

" But I'm glad you found Mr.Hamato. Your godfather is a kind man."

He'd been here for a while. The bad tea was made and set out on the coffee table, cold and full in their cheapest cups. Long enough for Yoshi to tell a story and test his reactions. Long enough for him to notice the gun and how barren and lacking of witnesses their normally busy street was.

Yoshi stared back at her with complete blankness.

He understood.

April only managed a nod. Yoshi moved forward and pulled her into his side while he addressed Mr. Sacks. Comforting to the clueless. He slid the kunai into her back pocket and the ringing in her ears quieted down enough for her to hear what they were saying.

" --She's just overwhelmed. We have not discussed her father in quite sometime."

" I understand. It's hard for a girl her age. Hard for anyone."

" May I asked how you found April after all this time?"

Sacks looked a little sullen and bowed his head. Like the memory was distant and upsetting to a kind, thoughtful murderer like himself.

" I only knew April and Kirby through the time we'd spent at the office together, but after I found out Kirby had passed I wanted to make sure she was alright. She was all he had. I searched everywhere and after a while I assumed-- well that she had been inside."

He flickered to April then lowered his voice to a whisper she wouldn't have heard if he had actually cared enough to mean it.

" They didn't find many bodies,you see. But a few weeks ago, I passed the public school and well--"

Sacks warm smile felt like a stab through the heart. His words twisted until the wound wouldn't close.

" I'd never miss hair like that."

Sacks slid his hands into his suit pocket and winked at her like it was a nice little inside joke that she was supposed to giggle at until he ruffled her hair and gave her a dollar.

" After,I simply asked the school for address.They were so accommodating after I explained the situation."

Yoshi's grip pulled her closer to his hip.

Breathe, April, Breathe.

" How fortunate."

A beat of silence passed before Sacks's kind, open facade chipped around his eyes. His placating smiles did not reach anymore and is hand eased out of his pocket to rest on his belt.

The click of the safety wasn't audible.

" You know April, I actually have some questions about your dad's expir---"

The door swung open with a bang that sent all of them a foot into the air and Sacks scrambling to cover the gun with his jacket.Casey's smile was going on one thousand watts and his leg was still raised on the door frame from where he kicked it.

" Hey guys! You ready to party?" He cheekily wiggled a pizza box from the dumpster next door tantalisingly before strutting in like he owned the place.

" Wha-- oh wow! Your Eric Sacks! " Casey tossed the pizza on the table and walked in the few feet of space between the two men, flicking his phone open with a low whistle. From her angle, April could see he was typing nonsense and a few winky faces.

" Boy! The guys are going to be so siked to know a celebrity is going to be at the party! I'll let everyone know you're here!"

April's eyes widened at the same time Sacks's did, but for different reasons. Sacks smile dropped immediately when he cleared his throat and he made a b-line for the door.Casey made a big show of pressing send then pouted when Sacks reached for the handle.

" Hey! You're not gonna stay?"

" I didn't realize you were having company." Sacks said cooly. He raked a hand through his hair and gave them a billion dollar grin.

" I'll leave you to it. I'll be sure to visit soon."

" Please do." Yoshi said with such fake sincerity it almost scared her. Sacks took it warmly and chose that moment to walk out without another word. The door swung closed and no one moved until his shoes on the pavement were distant, and the car they hadn't seen turned down and out of range.

April shoved away from Yoshi and her white rimmed vision made her aim sloppy. The kunai sunk itself into the wall and not through Sacks head. Then she had to remember he was gone ,her dad was dead and that he came for her and the boys next. She remembered she was never safe and that he was going to shoot them if Casey hadn't ruined his alibi.

April stopped shaking when her knees finally gave out from under her and only registered Casey and Yoshi trying to help her up until her chest was raw from her cursing and the wet heat on her cheeks started to hurt.

That night, they drove Casey home and waited two hours down the block out of sight. Just in case.

April bought three boxes of brunette hair dye.

And Yoshi bought two one way plane tickets to Japan.

\-------

" --- so Sensei wants to take me to Japan. Back to the Hamato house."

Splinter once again didn't nod. He didn't let out a strained breath or curl his tail at her words. He just kept listening, like he had for the past hour, with dark eyes level and fingers nearly white with their grip on his favorite yellow robe.

" I don't want to go." April said. She felt hollow, like the life was being sucked out her mouth and her reason to go on was being ripped from her grip.

She'd cry of she had any tears left in her, but they'd seem to have finally dried out.

" But if I stay, and even if Sacks doesn't come back, He might find you."

The nearly dried up wasteland that was her resilience hardened and she finally looked up from her knees to see Splinter. She should have been taking him in the entire conversation. But it hurt to stare too long. To know it was the last time.

" I'd rather run forever then have him get to the boys."

Splinter still didn't speak. But it wasn't as big of a relief to watch him slowly pinch his eyes shut and take a breath. It looked like a struggle to keep himself together.

" He didn't hurt you?" Splinter asked.

Physically, no.

" No."

They were alone in her room. She'd brought down a few mats from the dojo months ago and they knelt in front of each other here before. They'd practiced Ninjutsu for hours here. They'd raised the boys up through the tree branches and gave them their first taste of sunlight here.

" I'll try to come back." April struggled, voice lilty and high. It was a weak promise that she had no power to keep. They both understood they were saying their final goodbye.

And even if she wanted to, she couldn't cry anymore

It became too much of an inconvenience. After years of loss and even if this deserved every drop she had, she just couldn't.

Splinter lifted a hand and she was leaning her cheek into his touch before he even made contact. His thumb was soft when it reached her eye, wiping at dry skin. His was hand was flittering, even against her cheek where she could feel his heartbeat was strong and quick, she felt it.

April closed her eyes. She was losing a father all over again and when she opened her mouth to say something, anything, it died in her throat with a weak whimper and his will was gone. His thick tail swept April up onto his lap and his hold was almost too much around her waist. She didn't know what else to do other than wrap her arms around his shoulders, bury her face into his fur and breathe.

" You have sacrificed everything for us, my child." Splinter said. His voice, for the first time, cracked when he called her his child. Her heart did too.

" We owe you everything."

And April laughed. It was wet and pathetic, but it brought the ghost of a smile to her face long enough to lean back and see Splinter.

" No you don't . That's what family does."

Splinter's stiff lip quivered and even his deep practiced breaths didn't seem to keep his normal calm air in check. So he pulled her in again. She felt a small spot on her head grow wet with time, but his breathing didn't change or falter. His shoulders didn't shake. He just held on for however long they had left.

" Dad?"

Despite his constant attentiveness to his sons, it took Splinter another moment before he could let go. It took everything she had to pull away and turn to Donatello.

" Yes, my son?" Splinter said, voice level.

" Can we have April?" Donatello said at the same time Michelangelo popped out from behind him and spoke in what he probably thought was a whisper.

" Did you get her?"

April wiped her dry cheeks with her sleeve and stood with a smile.

" You can always have me."

The boys once again, despite their young and undetermined age, had hit a growth spurt in the last coming months. They were no more than three, but at her height of five foot, they came up to her midriff now. And after a few incidents and one hour as Splinter's guinea pig while he practiced ancient healing practices on her back, they figured out she couldn't pick them up anymore.

It never stopped them from holding her hand. Donatello took left and Mikey took right and lead her into their shared bedroom which had been without orange crates for nearly a year and a half. And instead, housed two king mattresses that were shared among the four of them.

For once Leonardo and Raphael were feining civility. Their big, bright smiles were contagious, even if Raph was looking strained and ready to kill underneath. He grew dark in the eyes and she took  Mikey's miming of a big smile and his fingers dimpling his cheeks as the reason.

" We saw you were sad when you went to talk to Dad." Leo said in way of an explanation as Mikey shoved forward with his hands outstretched, a dollar store disposable camera at his finger tips, covered in crayon and with a chipped button.

" I got you this!"

" WE got you this." Donatello spat. Mikey barely registered his brother was in the room let alone his words, and fumbled with it until April had the camera in her hands and her fingers were sliding across the lens.

" We found it by the 4th ave drain." Raph helpfully supplied and jabbed a green digit at the little counter on the corner of the box.

" It's still got three whole pictures in it!"

April's heart swelled into her throat and swept four groaning turtles tightly up into her chest. Mikey gave in immediately and snuggled under her arm like he belonged there and the others seemed to accept their fate after a few seconds when she wouldn't let go.

" I love it." She murmured against Donatello's head then kissed the spot because she still could. She shook off her lingering sadness to put on a bright face when she let go, then held up the camera to her four brothers delighted faces.

" Let's take them now. Then I can get them developed for us."

" Oh! There's a pigeon down the walk with three legs!" Donatello suggests excitedly and Raphael nodded in approval after a second of deliberation.

" No, of us." April said.

Donatello's smile dropped and that's all it takes.

" Okay and the pigeon."

Donatello smiled again, and she grabbed each brother and yanked them into frame while it lasts. Mikey sidled up under her chin with a smile, and he's missing more teeth then when she was there yesterday morning. It stopped being ceremonious after the second molar got knocked out by a third wayward lizard to the face.

Donatello was to her right, squeezed up next to Leonardo whose shimmed himself against her cheek. She felt the bunny ears Raphael was pressing against her head from his spot to the left, but his smile is a level of fake innocence she wishes she had mastered at his age.

She takes the picture. Two more, so she sends in  two little agents who drag Splinter back for the second one. They place the camera on the tv and everyone sits on top of each other on the couch, Splinter in center, April pressed to his side, and two turtles each on their laps. Just before the camera goes off, April blows into her palms and the howls of laughter caught on film, she'll later find out, make the most beautiful picture she'd ever see.

After, they walk down the sewer and take a picture of the three legged pigeon (the third leg was actually a cheeto but she didn't want to crush their spirit), humbly named Pete.

"I have to go away for a while." April says after dinner that night. Fresh pizza and ice cream she brought down from the nicest shops in the city using all the allowance from that summer she, Irma and Casey spent doing yard work.The boys look like it's christmas when they see the table and if that's the last look she ever sees on their faces she'll be content.

" More?" Raph says incredulously. He has chocolate ice cream all over his face, and fights Splinter when he tries to wipe it off.

" Yeah." April says. She's not hungry, so she stops stirring her bowl of cookies n' cream despite that she liked having something to do with her hands, and watches Mikey drink the liquid remains with gusto instead.

" It's um, I'm going to be gone a long time."

Her tone sets something off on Leonardo's radar, because he pops up like a gopher from behind his bowl, face clean but concerned.

" How long is long?"

April forces a smile when she shrugs, doing anything to lighten the blow.

" I don't know."

" Are you gonna come back?" Donatello asks. He's right next to her and the tiny, confused crease in his brow is making it hard to go. Everything is making it so hard to go.

" Yeah." April says like she believes it.

" I'll be back."

It's nearly two am when she finally has to go. The boys are almost as nocturnal as she is but not quite. They're standing in their pajamas with drooping eyes and yawns breaking apart every sentence. They need to sleep. So these are her final goodbyes. None of them know that.

Mikey comes up first and she hugs him nice and tight. His arms are limp over her shoulders but he nuzzles his head into the crook of her neck in the way he always favored. She kisses him right between the eyes and he smiles, dopey, tired and adorable.

" Bye, April."

" Bye, Monkey."

Raphael tries to play tough, but when she scoops him up his hold is at tight as hers. She presses his forehead to his, thinking this is the one time she won't torture him with a kiss, but he pecks her cheek anyway.

" Come back." Raph orders more than anything else and it's the first time she ever fully intends on doing what she's told.

Donatello's never been huggy, so she grabs his face and peppers it with kisses until he laughs and those laughs turn into whines to stop. His cheeks are pink when she pulls away so she boops his beak one last time.

" Be good." She says and he nods.

" Bye."

It doesn't register until she gets to Leonardo that he does get that this is the final goodbye. His face is pinched, like he's trying to be stoic rather than sad, but he caves and throws himself at her the second she opens her arms.

" You have to come back at a three." He says, voice muffled by her shirt but she can hear how it wavers. He pulls away, biting hard on his lip to keep it from trembling long enough to point to her cracked watch that barely fits anymore on his thick wrist.

" I promise." April says. Then there's a heat at her side. Then the other. And all she can do is open her arms as wide as she can when everyone, even Splinter ,has her in a tight embrace.

Her mind drifts back to their first few weeks, when the lair had nothing but a mattress and orange crates and all she saw were the odd stains and bad smells.

She thinks of how an abandoned subway station became a home. And that her own living hell turned into something she'd give up everything for.

Eventually they let go. They have to at some point. And as a last request she helps tuck them into bed. There's a repeat goodbyes that are mumbles now, clouded by sleep. She stops at Leo staring up at her and kisses his forehead, sliding a hand over his.

" Take care of everyone. You're the biggest now."

Leo's eyes widen a fraction, then he nods.

She closes the door behind her with a heavy heart. She'd stop and take one last look, but she wouldn't leave if she did. Splinter gets this, so he walks her arms linked,to the turnstiles and they both stop.

" Do you think you can handle our boys for a little bit while I'm gone? They can be a handful."

A nostalgic smile grew across Splinter's face and he bows his head.

After that they just stand for moment. Unsure of what to say or do in what might be their final moments. Two years of conversations, growth and promises standing between them in the doorway, silent and thick in the air. If they hug again, they won't go. And if they say anything else, it's just more procrastination.

So April locks eyes with Splinter and says--

" Teach them."

There are several unspoken words beneath that that to hear. Protect them. Be careful.Take care of our boys. Show them how to be safe.

I love you.

Splinter nods. So she gives him one last smile and turns away.

The sewer is quiet and her sneakers squeak in a pattern that reverberates off the barren walls and only seems to affirm that she's alone. The bugs and pipes seem to be saying goodbye as well and offer their silence so she can soak in everything one last time.

The chalk drawings, dinosaurs to waffle monsters, on the walls fade with distance, along with the glow of the lair and the memories with it. She passes subway grates, storm drains and manholes for blocks, filtering noise from the city down to those hiding from it, to those hidden in the shadows.

A few years before she was jealous she wasn't part of that noise.

Now it hurts to climb the step ladder to her alley way. She sits on the third stoop and looks up at the street light through the small holes. The separation between man and mutant,the above and the below, was a rusty piece of metal meant to keep the dirt in and the men out.

Fingertips run over the grime from edge to edge , swirling across any pattern they pass just to keep them moving. She can't look down or she'll go back. And she can't trust herself to leave again. The moon, from where she sits, is full and visible against the New York skyline. There are stars spattered against the shades of blue and black. It'll be gone when she leaves, when she gets out and never comes back.

She'll never see her New York moon again.

Her palms flat against the circle of metal is enough to push it out of way, no crobar needed. April slides it back in place with the toe of her shoe. It rattles against its base and settles with an absolute, final clang.

Yoshi is standing by their rental car. She sees their bags through the back window and knows all the weapons are still in the house, back in the dojo under lock and key. Leonardo would give Splinter the key she slid him before bed tomorrow morning. He knows the back entrance, and he knows how to gut the room out before they rent the place out again. He'll have a proper dojo with proper weapons and tools. The book of Ninjutsu was next to a new set of kunai, just for him.

The last thing she could give them was everything she had.

Yoshi closes her car door when she takes the front seat. He slides into the driver side and they move in silence. He places a hand over hers on the arm rest and she doesn't move. But he knows it's a comfort and he doesn't either.

She didn't tell Casey. The less he knew the better, and after their run in with Sacks she knows he'll put the pieces together. She'd watched too many action movies, played too many video games and watched too many nights of his dad screaming in his face to know that he was prepared for the worst case scenario.

The last of her allowance buys him a new hockey stick and three bright pink pucks that she leaves as a thank you in the long unused dog house in his backyard. She was saving it for their first shared Christmas.

The airport is barren besides the straggling vacationers exiting their flights home, late businessmen and a wayward stewardess leaving her final shift of the week. They get on the plane without much trouble and Yoshi's speaking fluent Japanese to whoever he can with a warm smile and tired eyes.

She'll have to learn Japanese eventually. So she takes one of the books she slid into her carry on, a Japanese to English dictionary that she never actually thought she'd glance at more than once, and moves to A.

" You should get some sleep." Yoshi says and it barely registers over the roar of the engines. She waits until they're high, above the city and the clouds and she can see every light it has to offer.

April swears, despite the height, she can pick out her section of town. Her street. Her alley and her sewer. The grip she's kept on the camera doesn't lessen.

She slides down the window and wishes she could be the heroine that never looked back.

April never stops looking.

 

\------

The Hamato home was a large, expensive Japanese styled home that stretched across acres of family owned land. There were gardens and lakes that curved and moved within and around each other in perfect harmony. It was a picture out of a postcard, with Tokyo painting the background instead of an open sky.

There were people walking around the property, men and women and children that Yoshi didn't introduce her to yet but mentioned were family in passing. Cousins and Aunts and uncles, distant relatives twice removed and those who weren't related by blood but were family just the same.

His grandmother was head of the house now, he explained. She was nearly eighty but still sharp as a whip. He was next in line as head, being the eldest grandchild. His mother would have been next if she hadn't passed. So he was always going to return. Eventually. He had just hoped that Karai would be with him.

He never mentioned Karai, just like she never mentioned her father. It was just as painful for him, she wasn't dead but she was ripped away just as forcefully and left him just as heartbroken. Instead, he brought home a young orphan girl who was half his daughter's age and twice as hard headed.

So she expected some harsh words between Yoshi and his grandmother. Or at least some disgusted glares from the family when she sat down in front of the old, white haired women seated in a grand room covered in family heirlooms and burnt wood, wrapped in a Kimono that nearly identical to the one she saw Yoshi's wife wear in a picture years before.

But she had just smiled with Yoshi's kind dark eyes, taken her hands and said--

"Welcome home."

\-----

It took a few months before she found out about Oroku Saki.

April was still learning Japanese, but she knew enough to pick up on what she needed to. A few of the older cousins that lived on the grounds didn't like her. They'd stared like she was a circus attraction and whispered when she walked through the gardens in her first few weeks.

" She's another stray." A girl she was pretty sure was named Hana spat. Her brother, Kai, never let the constipated expression leave his face.

" Yoshi's just trying to replace Karai."

" She's going to end up like Saki. We need to keep the fire extinguishers ready."

Later, she taught them the ancient American tradition of 'talk shit get hit' and was grounded for a week, but it was worth it.

" Who's Saki?" April asked in Japanese when she felt the heat on her had died down.

She and Sensei had dinner together every night. Breakfast was usually under two minutes, less one when she started school, and was a granola bar if anything. Nana, Yoshi's grandmother insisted she call her, called dibs on lunch. Everyday was a new lesson in cooking traditional japanese food, and sometimes April would flip the switch and teach her the perfect hamburger or pizza pocket.

But dinner was between them and only them. They had a section of the house rather than a room, their dining room was filled with take out more often than not (Tang Shen had been the cook) but April appreciated the alone time.

Especially since chopsticks were still foreign and the rest of the family still nearly cried remembering her first night, stabbing a piece of food on her plate with the stick and getting thrown out of her chair from the force of the meat hitting her face. Yoshi had to go into the city to buy forks.

" Where did you hear that name?" Yoshi asked. He kept his eyes on his food but she could feel the sudden chill to his words before she would've seen it behind his brown hues.

" Hana and Kai." She said around a mouthful like she knew he hated. Yoshi didn't comment.

" They said we were both strays and that they should keep fire extinguishers handy."

Sensei looked up startled and it seemed like the deep breath he suddenly took was to keep calm.

" They're assholes." Sensei finally says and April chokes on her water. He knows she loves it when he curses, just because it's so out of character for her kind, caring Sensei. And that's probably why he does it, to get her off track.

But if she was anything, April O'Neil wasn't a quitter.

"Who was he?"

" A traitor."

The conversation didn't continue. The pure venom that one word oozed made April's mouth snap shut before she made the wrong comment, and she waited until the silence was less awkward before mentioning school and her hatred for the mandatory skirts in the coming winter.

" He was an orphan." Nana said the next afternoon while April was flipping grill cheese and stirring the instant lemonade she hunted down during her shopping trip that weekend. Nothing tasted quite like the fake stuff.

" Yoshi befriended him many years ago, when he was around your age, and brought him into our home. He was an old soul, set in his ways before he had them, but was gifted in the art of Ninjitsu. Saki and Yoshi were like brothers and grew together knowing each other as nothing else."

" Tang Shen had grown up with them as well. She was as strong willed as she was beautiful and both of them knew it. In the years to come, she'd marry Yoshi. And Saki grew to hate both of them for it."

" That's dumb. It was her choice." April commented and Nana stopped to laugh.

" You'll come to realize men are dumb, child. Especially around pretty young women like yourself. Use it to your advantage." Nana said with a wave of the spatula she'd snatched from April when the sandwiches started to burn during the story.

" Now, Saki started to see Yoshi as a rival and Shen as a prize to be won. He fought harder, trained faster and refused to ever show mercy. It scared both Shen and Yoshi, and they started to pull away. For a time, they left to the city to escape Saki's hatred. And when they returned, Karai was born."

She passed over a picture of a teenage girl, hair cut into an angled bob and a smile that was nearly as bright as her glinting sword. She looked like her mother, from what April had seen. But those were Yoshi's eyes. Hamato eyes.

" Saki was filled with rage." Nana said woefully.

" This was the ultimate betrayal, but he loved Karai. Hers was the closest to Tang Shen's love as he would ever receive. So one night, he turned the clan against us and started his own family's dishonored clan once more,The Foot. There was a fire in the dead of night , a last stitch attempt to wipe out the Hamato clan. But everyone survived."

" Except Tang Shen." April said. Nana nodded, slow and solemn.

" Saki had filled her head with lies and that night, all Karai saw was Yoshi's failure to save her mother. So they left and Karai went with them. The last any of us heard, The Foot was in New York. That was three years ago."

" Sensei went to bring her home." April said.

" He went to bring home his daughter." Nana said and brushed her auburn hair away from her eyes.

" He did."

\---

April, age 13

It took another three years to work up the nerve to get the pictures she'd taken with the boys developed. Beside the fact that places that still actually developed pictures were far and few between in the new technological age, she couldn't bear to part with the camera itself. It was the last gift she had from her baby brothers, and as fully prepared as she was to jump the counter and tackle the clerk to save it, she still made Yoshi take the film out himself before even finding the store.

It took a few hours, but eventually she had a whole stack of photos ready to be sorted through. The owners gave her odd looks, which she originally thought was because they'd seen the pictures, but apparently waiting three hours for a set of disposable camera photos instead of just coming back could be seen as a little odd.

April gave the brightest withering smile she could manage and snatched the photo from the counter girls limp wrist with as much disdain she could muster.

The first forty photos were of a family vacation, pictures of a young couple and their two small children. Hand in hand smiling at the empire state building, standing in the middle of time square with the jumbo tron glowing a coke ad in the background and a even a shared kiss under the ferris wheel in the Toys R Us super store. They were probably the only pictures of this family's vacation, and the only physical memory of their cherished family bonding.

April chucked them all in the nearest garbage bin and pressed the remaining three into her jacket pocket.

 

She chose the car on the train with the least people on the way home and took a corner seat by a door. There was a man in a suit, looking between his phone and her every couple of minutes a few seats down and a busty woman cradling a sleeping child next to an equally as sleepy hobo at the other side of the car. Other than that, she was alone. So she slipped the photos from her pocket and took her first peek.

They were absolutely perfect. Ignoring how nicely the light caught the cheeto in the picture of pigeon Pete, they were actually kind of fuzzy and dark, but she could see them.

Raphael's fingers peeking from around her head were as adorable as his smile and Mikey's stupid stained batman t-shirt was still as oversized and ugly as ever on his perfect little frame. Donatello was still blind as a bat despite the glasses she'd fished for him, and his eyes were almost crossed trying to find the camera without them. Leonardo, the cheeky little turd, had actually crossed his eyes for the photo and nothing could make it more perfect than that.

She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the second photo, everyone piled on the couch with faces that varied exasperation and laughter while she was puffing her cheeks at full capacity against her palms for the fart of the century. It was her new screen saver and if anyone asked, she was going to become a monster movie makeup artist.

Either story, they were her crowning achievement.

\-----

April, age 16

" When do I get a sword?"

Sensei sighed, fixed her footing again, and raised his padded palm for her to hit.

" Why do you want to sword?"

" Cause a real ninja needs a sword. " April said cheekily and kicked the padded mitt dead on. Sensei switched his position and held it out again. They were wasting time. She's surpassed the level he was teaching her at years ago. But Yoshi valued perfection when he taught. And April was still an overachiever.

" I will teach you how to use a weapon." Sensei said.

" But you're not getting a sword."

" Why not?" April countered, and her slight fault in concentration landed her with a smack on the side of her head by one of the younger cousins meant to be playing adversary.

" Ow, Suki!" April pretended to gape, and the five year old little girl covered her mouth like she told a scandalous secret and giggled. Her older brother Mako on the other hand, raised another hacky sack from their pile and waved it threateningly.

April took a theatrical step back and finally got Yoshi to snort.

" Your way is not the way of the sword." Yoshi said and April whined dramatically then slapped the hacky sack going for her ear out of the air without looking. Mako pouted.

" Why do you only get philosophical when I want stuff?"

" It normally throws people off." Yoshi admitted.

" See, your issue is putting normal in a sentence meant to describe me." April said and raised her hand to block two more projectiles while keeping eyes on Yoshi.

Yoshi watched the movement. Her careless ease and casual sway to her finite,over practiced and perfected movements, then finally cracked a smile.

He was nearly fifty now and the smile lines around his mouth were more prominent with every smirk, grin and laugh. His calm aura combined with the casual robes he now chose to wear around the house, he had finally started to get that classic sensei vibe that Splinter normally held.

April wondered how they were doing. Nearly six years gone, she hoped they were alright. Not that she didn't hope and wonder everyday for their sake. The burners didn't work this far and unless they'd suddenly gotten an apartment and a P.O box since she'd been away, there was no way to contact them.

Sensei must of saw something in her eyes, he always did, because the children were ushered out of the room and she was being lead to seperate section of the dojo.

" I thought you said no weapons?" April murmured, nearly busting her neck trying to get a 360 of the room , lined wall to wall with old looking blades and knives, throwing stars and bo-staffs all shined to perfection and hung with utmost care on little studs or set carefully on hooks and stands.

" I said no swords."

Sensei walked to a specific engraved box among a wall of engraved boxes, each labeled and marked with intricate japanese script on paper that looked older than both of them.

The box he opened said 'Karai'.

" This was meant for my daughter." Sensei said, and lifted out a war fan. Made of metal and nearly glittering in the low artificial light. A beautiful intricate design was painted across the fan itself and curved down into the grip, flowers and a tree not unlike the cherry blossom that grew in the lair with falling petals in front of a large red dot that centered itself on the white background.

The tree wasn't supposed to be there. The Japanese flag was normally the only symbol to adorn a war fan, but on the edge of the tree, written with the same pink paint as the falling cherry blossoms, was Tang Shen's signature.

" And I fully intend on giving it to her."

Sensei rested the fan in her hands and the pride in his eyes nearly broke her six year streak of dry eyes. Her heart swelled against her chest and all she could do to keep the dancing butterflies from escaping her stomach was to bow her head.

" Thank you, Sensei."

And after that didn't work, she jumped him in a hug and Yoshi laughed like a madman when she smacked herself in the face with the butt of her fans grip.

\-----

April, age 22.

" April, it's time." Hana said from the doorway.

April looked back at Nana who was visible in the other room. She had stopped mixing medicines a week ago. It was pointless. So she just sat with a glass of water beside and her eyes cast downward to her folded hands.

April took a breath and stood. Yoshi had asked to see her last. The family had been in and out for days now, but he refused to let her in anytime past the end.

Yoshi didn't want her to see him dying. He just wanted to see her before he was gone.

April was a woman now. She'd graduated school years ago, got a job writing a bubbly news column on a popular newspaper and spent day after day with her Sensei in the dojo.Practicing and learning  for the purpose of  keeping the art alive since she no longer had anyone to protect. She gardened with her cousins,cooked with her grandmother and took every moment with her family for the blessing it was to have one.

Yoshi got sick when she was nineteen.

In all gruesome honestly, it'd been a surprise he lasted as long as he did. His body was killing him from the inside out, but he wasn't going down without a fight. Yoshi had been strong and smiling until the very last day. Until his legs gave out and breathing was a new challenge.

April walked into his room, smaller than she remembered but with the same overwhelming amount of family photos on the walls. It didn't smell like the warmth the rest of the house seemed to radiate. It was cold and too much like the scent of the hospital that used to send a chill up her spine as a child.

Yoshi was lain down in the center of the room. His normally full cheeks had sunken in and his eyes were rimmed with red. He looked frail, like he was made of paper and glass and any movement would crack his pale skin to dust.

Her cousin Tadashi was stood against the door, his stethoscope still around his neck. She met his eyes while she knelt and he shook his head slowly.

April pushed to smile and took her Sensei's hand.

" Hey, Yoshi." She said gently and tried not to flinch at how cold his skin was to the touch.

Yoshi's eyes peeled open slowly. His breathing was very slow and very even. It didn't hitch when he smiled back.

" April."

The sound of his voice was like sandpaper grinding against brick and her own throat felt tight.

" I'm sorry you have to see me like this." Yoshi rasped. April shook her head and clasped his hand between both of hers, hoping to share any of her warmth. All of it.

" You kidding? It's like you're forty again." April said and Yoshi laughed until he had to sit up from the force of a choking cough. Tadashi moved to come to his side but Nana raised a hand to stop him. April placed a hand firm on his back and ignored the vertebrae too prominent on his back to keep him steady.

The hand Yoshi pulled back from his mouth was red, and April used a rag to wipe it off before lowering him back down.

" I don't have long." Yoshi was barely above a whisper but the words were deafening when his breathing was the only other sound in the room.

" Don't say that." April snapped and her voice wavered. The nonexistent grip Yoshi had on her hand tightened.

" Your hard head won't change this." Sensei said gently.

" April, I need you to know. That despite our troubles, it was an honor to teach you. To raise you."

Yoshi's glossy eyes watered and he nodded while he spoke, like he was confirming this all for himself as well as her. Like he was reassuring before she could reject.

" It was an honor to be your family. You've made me so proud. Your father would be proud too."

April's eyes started to burn and she wiped away at her face with her sleeve before tears truly threatened to fall. She couldn't help but breathe out a laugh.

" Of course my father is proud. He just told me."

Yoshi's disbelieving gape, for the millisecond it was there, cracked with his smile. It was like new life to his pale, dying complexion.

" I love you, Father."

" I love you too,my child."

\-------

Hamato Yoshi died at age 56.

April was still twenty two, and she didn't remember much about that night through the silence of the room that Yoshi's heart beat was meant to fill.

The funeral was a family affair but friends and other loved ones still lined the gates for hours. All condolences, gifts, homemade meals and kind words were directed to April. Technically, she was Yoshi's only immediate family. Or, the only immediate family present.

Karai knew, Nana made sure of it. But she didn't come.

Yoshi was buried next to Tang Shen. It was a beautiful, traditional ceremony that April refused to look away from despite how badly her chest and stomach burned under the coldness in her heart and how much she wanted to curl away from it all. But this wasn't just a goodbye. It was a celebration of his life, a final way to say thank you.

She already missed one father's funeral. If Kirby O'Neil even got one.

April arranged the wake, and made sure every photo the house had was in the main room in plain view. She wanted everyone to remember his smiling face at their first hello as vividly as they would his ice cold fingertips against their own during the final goodbyes.

Nana stayed by her side most of the day,working as a buffer for the crowds and for the increasingly rude single men who'd come to offer her a better life after her Father's passing, ( Nana was protecting the men from her more then she was protecting April.) and was on her like glue by the time night came.

They cleaned dishes and threw out paper cups from the main rooms. Beds for visiting family were made in tandem and in silence. And the other daily chores that were neglected in the past week were finished in a matter of sleepless hours.

By three am April retreated to her own room beside Yoshi's empty one, and was about to rip her kimono in half trying to get it undone before wrinkled hands were placed over her own.

April let her fingers fall and Nana kept her attention on her hands, unwrapping the fabric with a mastery that only came with age while she talked.

" You have nothing left for you here, child."

" You're here." April countered but there was none of her usual bite. The full mirror she faced gave her a view to Nana's face, but it was tired and blank as she pulled the Kimono from April's shoulders and it stayed that way as she hung it up. April had an qualms about her naked form kicked out of her over many nights with her cousins and bathhouses, and took her time getting her pajamas on. More sluggish than leisurely.

" I'm no reason to stay." Nana chided but it was as empty as April was.

" You're a young, vibrant, beautiful woman now,April. I may call you a child, but everyone is compared to me."

April laughed at that, a brief exhale through her nose that was more courtesy than true.

" Living in fear of death is how we all live." Nana said, meeting April's eyes through the mirror.

" We fear that our next day will be our last everyday. Most of us don't realize we even do it. But it's how we make sure that every day is spent. Not always well spent, but it is always done."

" I don't fear for myself, Nana." April said, turning away from the reflection all together to meet her own eyes head on.

They were still blue. That was something constant at least.

" I'm scared for my family."

" Then why are you here and not by their side?" Nana said with bite this time and April refused to shy away.

" Yoshi--"

" Is gone." Nana said with finality that brought the room to a stand still.

With her head low, April could see the ends of her long auburn hair. She still dyed it, twice a month to block the bright red roots. Because Sacks would never forget hair like that. And because she hated the auburn. She hated the loose brunette curls that cascaded over her shoulders as much as she hated the look in Sacks eyes when she mentioned her father's 'special experiments'.

" I'll kill him if I go back." April says and she means it.

" Then bring your sword." Nana lifts her chin with a thin quivering hand. There is no blood relation between them, but April recognizes the fire in her eyes.

"  But do not let any man take your happiness from you anymore."

\-----

The plane ride back to New York is loud, full of tourists and smells like an ashtray despite the 'no smoking' signs.

It's good to be home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (( Whoo! We're at the half way point now. Chapters after this will mostly be set to the timing of the 2014 movie.))


	5. The New Foundation

New York is exactly as she left it. Obnoxious, bright and overbearing. The streets smell like fast food, smoke and crap and every person you bump into greets you with a newer and more colorful curse each time.  There are bright neon signs at every turn and the costumed Hello Kitty wannabe's are wearing dirtier suits then the last time April saw them.

And the sewers? Just as barren and unsuspecting as she liked them.

It takes two hours to get into her hotel after her flight, and another four to eat and shower in a last stitch effort to fend off her nerves. April attempted sleep, but even the three am bustling white noise the city gave off wasn't slowing her heart rate long enough. So she takes a cab back to her old middle school and walks the other three blocks out of habit.

Yoshi's house is light blue now and the bushes are covered in lively and vivid roses. The door is still the same color as when she repainted it nearly fourteen years before, but the porch railings are now white and new. The lights are off, but she can tell there's a family there now. The window that her upstairs neighbor's cat used to pearch is closed and covered in stickers.

The pizza place is still falling apart and the dumpster still overflows with the fresher food sitting untouched and cold on the concrete. It makes April wish she had brought something other than her  fan and pictures. Maybe an offering of the best triple cheese and pepperoni in the city, like they got on their second mutation day years ago.She'd lived in Japan for so long, she also forgot that they may have liked souvenirs. She'd have Nana send some touristy things over with the rest of her stuff when she settled.

All of these thoughts are jumbled and distracting in the back of her mind because she's suddenly standing over her manhole in her alley way a few blocks from her subway station with her family below, waiting. There's a white haze of emotion clouding all rational thought. Fear,excitement, worry,guilt,elation. It grips like a boa constrictor around her throat ,so tight, her breathing hurts.

Her fingers tremble when she pries the lid open. It's so much lighter than it was twelve years ago but that barely registers  when her boots hit the concrete sewer floor and the silence is filled with leaky pipes and chirping rats.

It's all so overwhelmingly familiar that she's suddenly running, running down memorized corridors and down beaten paths with nothing but the click of her heels on the floor announce her presence. It's a corner too soon when the chalk drawings start. They're ones she'd never seen, drawn by taller children with steadier hands, but they still share the one thing that makes her heart soar.

Signatures.

Leonardo.

Michaelangelo.

Donatello.

Raphael.

April's crying and she knows it, but for the first time in a long while she lets them happily flow . Because it means her boys are alive. It means they learnt how to read and write and got tall enough to draw above her. It means they lived and they're okay and that childhood wasn't ripped from their three fingered grasp like Splinter feared, it was celebrated and cherished and April would get to see them through the rest of it.

They're teenagers now, April thinks and jumps the turnstiles---

Into darkness.

It throws April off, for just a second. She scrambles for the light and the rooms piercing glow isn't enough to make her blink because it's empty.

The lair looks like it did when she was eight, crawling through a barren, broken world. There are shadows of dirt in the ground in the shapes of furniture, proof of something there before. But there's nothing now.

" Hello?" April says and she almost doesn't recognize her own voice. It sounds so broken.

The boys room has no mattresses, and the orange crates that went from baby beds to dressers are smashed in the corner of the room and charred, like someone attempted a fire.

The bathroom is gutted, both the sink and toilet had been taken out. But the plumbing was still hanging, spouting pathetic spurts of water into a growing puddle on the water stained floor.

Splinters room is empty. The living room and kitchen are empty. The spare rooms that once housed everything they ever held dear to the recycling now looked licked clean. The clothes are gone. The furniture is gone. The Tv, the books and even the spare toilet paper and first aid kit hidden away in secret paneling are gone.

It takes every ounce of her being to look into her own room.

The tree is still beautiful.

It spills moonlight through every open pore. The branches are shaking from a breeze that sweeps up top, and rose pink cherry blossom petals fall across the floor into piles of dead brown ones that've taken over the floor and covered the expansive tree roots after years of neglect.

It finally sets in that they're gone. It takes a horrible, dreadful and heart stopping second for her brain to come up with and discard ' They're dead'. It's irrational and made no sense considering the state of the Lair. And her point is only proven when the light reflects off broken plastic against the base of the tree just long enough for her to crawl over and wipe the petals away.

There's a note in black pen on a white, yellowing sticky note pressed to the floor. The script is tight and precise but loops at the end of every letter word in a childish scrawl.

Her power ranger watch rests on it. The band is broken and a child's belt is attached to it in a crude attempt to make it larger. The hand is also stuck, like someone moved it there. And there are five words on the note.

" We'll see you at three."

April takes both the note and watch out of the sewer with her and starts the search the second her feet hit the surface.

\-----

After two weeks, April feels like she's nearly explored half the city's sewer system, but knows she's no where close to even making a dent in the area she needs to cover. She orders a map of the city's system online through some seedy means, and crosses off blocks as she passes through.  She's running with no leads, no clues and no ideas. April comes home nightly smelling like sewer water and sweat.

That's the time it apparently takes for her crappy hotel to get some standards, because they actually have one of the dreadfully overworked and underpaid teenage staff pointedly ask how much longer she'll be staying with them.

So she gives herself a week.

A week pause to get herself an apartment and job so she can get back to what's important. So she starts looking for a roommate in the papers. She avoids anyone with a vaguely masculine name asking specifically for a woman, and anyone whose details include anything about liking Star Trek or cats.

Unsurprisingly, her standards cause the numbers and availability to dwindle to near non existence, and she's horribly close to checking the obituaries to see who left what, when she spies a familiar name next to a bargain for a two bedroom.

\-----

" April fucking O'Neil!" Irma shrieks reminiscent to a banshee, and despite her her max height of 5'1 on tip toes, manages to pick April up off her feet bag and all in a bone crushing hug.

" Hey Irma!" April manages through her crushed hips and comically takes a deep breath when Irma releases her to drag her bags inside.

" Holy crap, dude! It's been forever!" Irma says and unceremoniously kicks April's stuff into what she imagines is her new room.

" Twelve years." April says and Irma whistles, moving to make tea she didn't ask for but she definitely wants. Irma gets her.

" Yeah, you kinda vanished in sixth grade, man."

" We moved to Japan. It was really really sudden." April says and nods at whatever random tea bag Irma gestured to with her black painted fingertips. Compared to her Nana's tea, the only brew she'll admit to enjoy, tea bags all taste the same.

" Well, Japan did you good,girl." Irma purrs, raking April up and down with her eyes so obviously she has to laugh.

" No seriously!" Irma says through both her and April's giggles. April sits on a stool by the kitchen island that Irma is standing behind, now fussing with a bottle of wine, seeming to ditch the tea all together despite having asked on seconds before.

April gestures to the fridge and Irma nudges a drawer that has the cheese.

" What are you doing nowadays? Modeling?"

" Irma." April says witheringly but Irma doesn't relent and rips open a box of crackers with ferocity to prove her seriousness.

" You can't walk into a bi sexual womans home looking like you do and not expect some comments."

" Hey--" April says, gesturing with a cheese covered cracker with one hand ,the other full of wine glass.

" This is our home now."

Irma places a hand over her heart and mocks a swoon that clashes with her black and purple hair, black mini skirt, blouse and fishnet stockings so drastically it makes the action more comical then it should be.

" So what about you?" April asks.

" Hows Hot Topic treating you?"

The joke makes Irma double over from the force of the red wine nearly coming out of her nose. April can't see her face from how much she's giggling but Irma gives her a perfect view of her middle finger that sums up her emotions.

" I'm a secretary at channel 6." Irma says.

" No shit?"

" Yes, shit." Irma pops a piece of cheese in her mouth and speaks around it instead of swallowing.

" What about you? Got a job yet?"

" Still looking." April says honestly.

" I'll take a job at McDonalds if I need to, but I'm giving myself a week before I give up my dignity."

Irma hums and puts down her empty wineglass to fumble across the room in a stack of papers that cover the coffee table. Well,papers pretty much cover every surface in the house, along with clothes and food containers and blankets, but April's used to having to be the clean freak. She'll make a weekend out of this place at some point.

" Save your dignity, O'Neil cause I think I may have your golden ticket to the chocolate factory."

" What?" Irma slaps down a form in front of her on the island, and April sets down her half empty glass for Irma to top off while she reads.

" My stations looking for a new Lifestyle reporter. The qualifications include minor reporting experience, being hot and a nice rack. I know you have two out of three of those things."

" I did do some minor journalism in Japan." April says and Irma snaps her fingers.

" See? It'll be great! We can work together, get lunch, talk about boys." Irma says the last bit of the sentence with a valley girl lilt that makes April grin.

" What boys?"

" Oh I don't know. Casey Jones?"

April blinks once, then twice.

" Jesus, Casey Jones. I haven't thought of him in years." April breaths and Irma takes the grin that April dropped.

" He had such a huge crush on you."

" What?" April says incredulously.  " No he didn't."

" Casey didn't have friends April. He had you. The guy was crushed after you left." Irma says matter a factly and April's mouth clamps shut.

" Oh."

" Yeah, 'oh'. "

" He still around?"

" On tour." Irma supplies. Her glass is empty again and April fills it for her. They've taken down a quarter  of The bottle and Irma takes that as a cue to ditch the cheese and crackers and put in some pizza rolls.

" Hockey kicked off for him a while back. Low key team, so he still comes around to run his dad's old mechanic's shop during the off season."

April must look thoughtful, because Irma says--

" He still uses your stick."

April gapes.

" How did--"

" There's only one person I knew that Casey would use pink pucks for. Even out of spite." Irma chirps and pulls out her phone, types quickly then shoves the phone in her face.

" Look he's hot."

" Irma." April whines but there's a wide glare behind Irma's large glasses when she doesn't take the phone, so April snatches it, only after sticking her tongue out, and looks at the facebook page she pulled up.

She's right. He's super hot. But she refuses to glance at her old favorite smile for longer then a second so the guilt didn't set in.

" Still won't cut his hair?" April says and Irma snorts.

" We're not having a hair conversation. This is a dick conversation."

" I haven't seen him since I was ten!" April says and lets the phone fall to the table with a clatter that makes Irma jump.

" No dicks!"

" What kind of roommate are you if we're not talking about dicks?"

" A normal one."

" You know that's not true."

" Let me live my lie."

Irma clucks her tongue but lets the topic drop. The pizza rolls ding in the oven and she dawns some rather cute puppy paw oven mitts to pull out the tray.

" So why come back to the U.S? Miss the Kardashians?"

" We have Kardashian's in Japan." April says, not like it’s a good thing, and pops a pizza roll in her mouth despite how bad it burns her tongue.

" My brothers stayed with their Dad. We lost touch after I left so I'm looking for them."

" Too bad the phone book isn't a thing anymore. Those were the days." Irma sighs and pops a pizza roll in like she did, but immediately gags at the burning and downs her wine.

" Tell me about it." April mumbles, then looks back down at the resume sheet again.

" So you think you can get me an interview?"

" Honey," Irma says through her burnt tongue so it sounds more like 'bunny'.

" I can get you the job."

\--------

" Irma!" April whispers harshly. Because this is the third time she's stuck her hands down her shirt to mess with her cleavage.

" I'm working here! This is my job!" Irma says.

It's not her job. Irma's a desk jockey, but still managed to weasel her way into the Channel 6 van on her lunch break to see April's first shoot in a blocked off section of time square.

Make up already covered April with enough product to add another three pounds to her face, and the designer track suit wardrobe had her in is already packing her in like a sausage, but Irma still jumps her and tries to push up her chest and pull down the zipper of her suit from it's already low point on her chest anyway.

Irma seems to think whatever she'd done did the trick and kicks open the van doors to whistle to her new camera guy.

" Vernon! Better or worse?" Then gestures to her chest.

Vernon is nearly thirty, stands at about six foot and has the confidence of a cheese stick around anything that's not a woman. He really likes her, and has tried to ask her out five times since they'd met two week ago, but so far isnt anything to worry about.

Vernon turns seven shades of red and sends them both two thumbs up. He forgets he's holding the camera when he does it, and fumbles for the expensive equipment that's probably worth more than the three of them combined.

" This is gross." April spits and Irma nods.

" Sexism isn't going away, babe. The least you can do is use it to get a bigger paycheck."

April can't argue with that, but zips up her suit anyway, steps out of the van and catches the mic Vernon tosses her easily.

" What are we doing?" April asks and Vernon adjusts the camera, looking at her through the lens while he talks instead of her eyes.

" Dietitian to the stars new tips on a better you." Vernon says and gives her a theatrical jazz hand that actually helps her nerves the littlest bit.

His hand fly up and he holds up three fingers. He mouths two and puts down the second and third finger,leaving his middle finger the one up with a grin on his lips that makes the smile she puts on for the camera genuine at the last second.

" Good Morning, New York! I'm April O'Neil, your new Channel 6 lifestyle guru. Today we have Gwyneth Paltrow's best tips on a better body! Tip one, wheat grass smoothies!"

\------

In her defense, she waited until after the camera finished rolling to barf up her wheat grass smoothie. There actually didn't seem to be much of an issue, because Vernon seemed completely fine holding her hair back while he talked with Irma about celebration burgers at the broadway karaoke diner down the street.

" We should get drinks to celebrate,the three of us." Vernon says around a mouthful and circles the three of them in their booth with his finger. Irma scoffs before April can answer and Vernon raises a brow.

" April has a secret double life. She can't go out at night."

" What are you Hannah Montana?" Vernon asks and Irma nods until April elbows her in the ribs.

" I have plans." April defends. All the smoothie did is clear out her already empty stomach and she's downed half her burger already. She's taking long bouts of puppydog gazes at Vernon's fries, and he gives in two seconds into a look and shoves some on her plate.

" Like a date?" Vernon winces and Irma barks a loud laugh that startles a few people at tables around them.

" No." April says and narrows her eyes at Irma. She sees Vernon visibly relax.

" I just go out."

" Little brother search. She's been looking for them since she got back."

" Got back?" Vernon inquires around a bite that's mostly lettuce and cheese.

" I've been in Japan for the last twelve years." April says and Vernon gapes for a second before using a fry to point at her accusingly.

" Prove it."

April takes a big swig of her milkshake and says

"Anata wa, watashi ga motteinai to omoimasuga, anata no geitaidenwa to no ofushūto no ma ni watashi no o shiri o satsuei shite kita dono yō ni watashi wa kidzukimasu. Anata ga sore o tsudzukereba, watashi wa anata no kamera ga anata no o shiri o tatsu tsukidasu tsumoridesu.” *

April knows Irma has minimal Japanese knowledge from an anime phase April was there to witness. Vernon looks at April in awe and Irma smacks her head on the diner table and screeches muffled laughter into the crook of her arm.

April really thinks she's gonna like it here.

Her search comes up empty that night.

\-------

Another three months of brother hunting gets her nowhere closer to the turtles then she was the day she landed.

Irma eventually starts waiting up for her in the apartment, and makes s'mores to help with the wave of sadness that washes over her every failed night.

" You'll find them." Irma murmurs into her hair some nights.

" You'll run to each other from either sides of a field and embrace against a sunset." Irma says other nights and they both help with the hurt.

She goes out searching every night and goes to work every morning. Channel 6 loves her and her boobs, Irma informs, and ratings have skyrocketed whenever her segment is played after one incident when she punched Vernon on instinct during a shoot and she went viral.

April's repertoire went from bouncing on trampolines to 2014s hottest pop hits, to on screen interviews with WWE and UFC champs who request her personally so they can get a taste of her right hook.

" You might get to do actual news soon." Irma says and April gapes comically.

" So best booty lift techniques of 2013 isn't news?"

Honestly, she'd never thought she'd enjoy her job. She'd wanted to be a scientist most of her life, like Kirby O'Neil, but the thought of sitting behind a desk for hours bores her way more than it used to. Reporting turns out to be fun and interesting and new. She's in the public eye that she'd avoided for about decade and she loves every second of it.

She starts hoping that the regular reporters get sick more than she liked to admit. Irma even suggests witchcraft to get her a spot on the nightly news, but they both agree they can't afford that much goat's blood.

Her segment is now called 'The Real O'Neil' and Sacks sends her fan mail.

April punches a hole in the wall of her dressing room before she even opens the pristine white envelope. And Irma and Vernon help her clean without question. The poster they cover the hole with is grumpy cat hanging from a tree saying 'Hang in there, Asshole'.

For the first night since she'd turned legal, April goes out and gets shit faced.

" So your dad used to work for Sacks?" Vernon reiterates and takes a long swig of his beer. It's a high end place for low key celebrities like April, so he's in a nice white button down and slacks. Either way he still slouches in their booth like quasimodo.

" Mhmm." April hums dead eyed and half way into a bowl of pretzels and whatever fruity drink Irma slid to her next.

" And he died?" Vernon asked a little quieter and April snaps a finger at him. Her nails are painted yellow. She always liked yellow.

" Murdered."

Irma winces, she knows the story by now, they're best friends and they agreed no secrets after the second month of coming home covered in poo water.

" Careful, April." Irma chides and tries to slide away her fifth? Seventh? drink she was using as a chin rest rather than a beverage.

" If Sacks wants me he can have me." April slurs and slides the drink back for a final gulp. She's in a t- shirt, jeans and a yellow leather jacket that the fans had rated highly a few weeks ago on Twitter. She stole it after the third time she wore it on set and it's become a favorite. She likes yellow.

" But I'm not going out without a fight. My Nana told me, never let a man take away my happiness ever again."

" Amen sister." Vernon says and throws back the rest of his drink. He moves to raise his arm for the bartender to bring another round, but Irma places to fingers on his hand and lowers it with a shake of her head.

" We should go home, Apes." Irma says gently and April whines.

" But you look so pretty." She does. Her bob was braided up into a nice plait that showed off the twists and highlights of purple. Her dress was simple, black and hugged the short stocky curves that Irma knew she rocked.

" I know. We're both very hot. "

Vernon mumbles another 'amen' under his breath.

" But you're not fun drunk. You're sad drunk. Let's go home and burn some fan mail."

April looks unconvinced until Vernon chimes in.

" I'll make quesadillas."

She's sold.

\---------

April stuffs the letter Sacks sent in her jacket pocket out if sight before they get to their apartment. She doesn't want to open it, but she doesn't want it burned.

The trio pulls out a large bag of fan mail that the station sends over and they keep in the back of the closet.Vernon true to his word makes Quesadillas, and bloody marys and water are had by all. They sort fanmail into categories, death threats, cute stuff, have an intern respond, and dick pics.

It's already midnight when they start, so by the time three am rolls around Vernon and Irma are passed out on the couches and the tv is repeating the same infomercials that they were making fun of an hour ago.

It's friday, and she has the weekend off. So the night is still young. April brushes her teeth and splashes some water on her face. Before she climbs out the fire escape to avoid the doorman, April covers both Vernon and Irma with blankets and leaves a 'I wasn't kidnapped' note on the coffee table.

It's spring and the air is cool at night. She moves through the streets silently, fan still folded against her hip, until she comes up to the next unchecked sewer block on her map. She'd uploaded it to her phone weeks ago and took to ticking off each block with red when they came up empty or there were too many construction workers for them to live anywhere near by.

This manhole is dirtier than the average disgusting ones she's used to, and she's about to flip it open when her phone beeps in her pocket. She pauses to flick her thumb across the glass and the glow from her screen lights up the street.

Her email, ignoring work messages that never stop, has one new message from an intern that she secretly set on a mission to alert her every time something news worthy no one else has touched yet popped up.

April kinda liked her job a more then she led on, and the idea of reporting 'real news' was a little higher than it should be on her to do list.  The email had two links. One labeled 'Vigilante's in New York' and the other 'Taco Trouble in Queens!'.

She clicked the more promising of the two and flicked through the notes her intern wrote up. As usual, it's paragraphs and paragraphs of needless information in an attempt to overachieve, but it all seems to lead up to the fact they were sighted around the docks where there was presumably some criminal activity in last coming weeks.

Her brothers could wait one more night.

She takes a cab across town and the security at the docks in laughable. It barely takes any of her normal person skill, let alone her training to jump the fence and slide herself against shipping crates until she hears movement towards the water. It's muffled Japanese and flash lights until April peers around the corner.

There are men in masks following orders barked by a woman cloaked in shadows, inspecting some of the crates. April squints in the dim light and can just make out the shine of metal tubes when a flashlight beam passes over said cargo. Chemicals, probably.

There's a bark of Japanese from the woman again and the workers start moving faster, puffs of white breathe rising from behind their full face masks was the only sign a real person was under there.

April carefully opens her fan and holds it at the ready when the leader woman drops her hood to survey her workers like a queen bee and her hive.

The pink tips of her hair catch the light, and it's when her eyes glow that April's heart skips a beat in her chest.

" Karai." April breathes.

Her step sister, probably in her early thirties at this point, looked like she was in her prime. Her eyes held none of the warmth their fathers did, and blades on each hip were much deadlier looking then they were in the pictures she'd seen as a teenager, glinting dangerously in the moonlight.

This is The Foot then. April bites her tongue to quell the urge to yell at her 'sister' from here. Ask her what was more important than her father's funeral and maybe pull her hair for the hell of it. But the urge subsidies as fast as it came on, and after only a few moments The Foot's heist is already going much too well.

April's dangerous, extremely well trained and knows seven ways to kill a man with her left pinky toe (Nana provided extra lessons behind Yoshi's back,bless her heart.), but she's not stupid. The math is simple, tons of men with guns and only one April. So she slides her fan back into her waistband and takes out her phone. At the least, she can give the police something to work with.

She opens her camera app and the place goes to shit.

The shipping crate gets flung across the dock and April crouches into a defensive just in time for one of the bodily thrown henchmen to narrowly miss her head. She turns, gaping and the man is unconscious as the dock is now silent ,after a call for retreat that took less time to perform than it did April to register. April turns back wide eyed and the glare of the moonlight makes the lone figure on a roof adjacent to the bay in the distance glow.

A huge, and she means huge, person or thing is perched in a power stance, a king looking over his kingdom. She can see the shining smirk of his teeth and the blades sheathed against his back. April fumbles for her phone and when she looks up, he's gone.

Adrenaline is just pumping enough that she has the thought to make chase, but sirens are already going off in the distance and April didn't need her first real news story to be about her first arrest. So she takes one final sweep, looking for anything at all to make sense of what she'd seen when black paint makes her blood run cold.

The Hamato family crest, painted in wet script across the shipping crate.

She knows this symbol so doesn't take a picture, and instead ruins her shirt scrubbing off the paint in a last stitch effort keep anyone from making any connections.

April stalks home that night with one thought.

If this was who she thought it was, her brothers were SO grounded.

\------

" He wants me to what?" April asks through clenched teeth. Vernon scrunches his face is sympathy through his large bite of turkey club. Irma, much to her credit, doesn't flinch.

" Sacks requested you cover the charity gala. It's you, or Channel 6 won't get in."

" Son of a bitch." April breathes and rakes her hands through her hair, fingers pausing to brush the small bald spot , compliments of Raphael years ago,the way she had for years to keep calm. A reminder of what she was fighting for.

" Did you--"

" I tried." Irma says and wraps her in a hug from behind. April's seething and she doesn't move,  but the hug is nice.

Vernon moves to join and Irma slaps his sandwich out of his hand.

" Boss lady says we need the coverage. I told her you had beef--"

" Did you actually say beef?" April asks squeakily.

" No. Ye of little faith." Irma jokes without her usual bubbly aftertone.

" She says personal feelings can't affect the business. I'm sorry, Apes."

" Technically now would be a great time to plan the murder." Vernon says as a way to lighten the mood. But April looks away thoughtful and Vernon pales.

" April, no."

April sighs and lets her head hit the makeup table harder than she meant to, but the sound is satisfying. As is the headache.

" I'll do it." April mumbles.

" You with me, Vern?"

Vernon perks up and pats her back awkwardly.

" Whatever you need, O'Neil."

" I need you to stop rubbing me."

" Yep, can do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What April said in english--" You think I haven't, but I notice how you've been filming my ass during off shoots with your phone. And if you keep at it I'm going to shove your camera stand up your ass."
> 
> (( Next chapter, the boys are back!))


	6. The Meet Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The part you've all been waiting for!

April gets tucked into a flattering and tight little black number for the gala. She doesn't do much, her part is pre-recorded before Sacks comes on to make his speech. A pretty bright smile here and a couple of pictures with wandering socialites there. All she really does is fein kindness to the young male bachelors for both E! TV and the entertainment of watching Vernon fumble over insults about the attractive young men and women who flirt with her through the night, in an attempt to make himself seem more eligible.

It's a rented out ball room littered with tables full of wine, finger foods and people with money. The space is covered is purple tapestry and April can tell from the pinched looks on peoples faces that they are either constipated or there to make face and not much else.

The lights dim everywhere but a large stage, and Sacks steps on in a dark suit and a public persona fakeness to his smile. After nearly twelve years without seeing his face, April decides it still isn’t long enough.

" Do not throw the butter knives at him." Vernon says through his teeth when he thinks he sees April's eyes wander, but April can't hear anything with her ears ringing so loud .Sacks has the nerve to mention the fire.

Sacks is up there, standing perfectly calm and pristine and talking to the crowd like he truly gives a flying fuck about anything other than himself. She feels bile rise in her stomach and the burn is more pleasant then his face.

" When this city catches flame, I'll be there to put it out." Sacks says and people clap.

April's crude laugh earns her a few pointed looks but she doesn't care.

She could throw her fan right now. Her aim is impeccable and one toss would send it through his body guards and if she aimed right, would chop off his---

" April!"

Sacks's speech is over and Vernons harsh whisper gives her the two second warning she needs before her hand is being held tenderly between Sacks's. Their large, withered and cold. Poetically, much like his heart and childishly, his di---

" God, look at you. You're beautiful. Absolutely stunning. Your father would be so proud."

" It's great to see you again, Mr.Sacks." April says with so much faked sincerity she wants to vomit on his five hundred dollar shoes.

Sacks looks surprised by her warmness and drops her hands casually instead of the hug he looked like he'd wanted to move into. Whisper in her ear a meaningful threat before taking his leave.

But she'd been practicing.

" I was so touched by what you said. I hope to do my part to help the city like you do one day."

 Or roughly translated, I can't wait to chuck you off the Empire State Building,feed you to the pigeons then  tell the story to my grandchildren.

" I've seen your work on Channel 6. Spectacular. I didn't know you were back in town." Sacks says, chipper as ever and mocking hurt from his lack of knowledge on her departure.

" Neither did I." April said lightly.

" My step father passed away a few months ago and I missed the Elmo impersonators."

"I'm sorry for your loss." The way he says it, it's not a surprise to him. He knew Yoshi was gone. He knew everything.

" But I hope to see more of you soon, April. Your father and I were close and I want us to be too. It's a tragedy we share, but it's a meaningful one."

Her smile is tight and forced, so she nods to give off the idea that it's from welled up emotion. It is, truthfully. But not sadness. Not anymore.

" I'd like that."

Sacks security ushers him out after that and Vernon is pushing her out before Sacks can feel the daggers being drilled into the back of his head as he walks away.

The night is over and she changes into jeans and her favorite yellow jacket in the back of the van, ignoring Vernon's wandering eyes from the driver's seat and sliding into the passenger side in silence.

" You good, O'Neil?" He asks and it's the most sincere he’s ever sounded around the desperate flirting. April hopes this is his way of slowly seeing her as an equal instead of a pair of boobs.

" I'll live." April says quickly, like a whip. Her emotions are hog tied and sitting at the base of her throat. It'll take a few drinks and a couple hours of Wife Swap with Irma before they loosen. It's ten, so she has a few hours to search is she wanted to, but the idea of any place other than her couch makes her stomach churn.

Vernon is quiet again, he's probably battling his inner thoughts to choose between an uncomfortable joke that'll make her laugh out of pity, or asking her to get drinks. At this point, she might say yes for the hell of it. But she doesn't want to lead him on to anything other than a co-worker relationship.

They keep the silence up for a block until people start running by the car.

" What the hell?" Vernon says and cranes his neck to  peer out the window. Their at a traffic standstill and no one's moving anytime soon from the looks of it, so they park in the car in the street, ignoring the chorus of honks behind them from those who can't see ahead.

April feels panic at the base of her stomach and screaming echoes through the subway station a ways up. She's jumping out of the car, running full speed into the fray before Vernon can say anything otherwise.

The police are pulling up a second too late when she runs through the weak barriers and lays herself flat against the dirty white tile of the empty station wall.

She hears footsteps,breathing other than her own rounding her corner. Otherwise the only noise in the normally bustling station is the distant barking of orders in Japanese by a voice April won't be able to forget again.

The linoleum is cold against her cheek and the black boot clad foot that barely peeks next to hers is welcome. She keeps her fan against her hip and elbows the Footmen in the throat, he reaches for his gun and she knees him under the chin, the entire encounter takes three seconds max and the footmen is out cold.

Swift, precise, silent and accurate. Four words that make a kunoichi a kunoichi.

Curious more than cautious, she peeks under the mask. It's a woman, japanese in her early forties or around there. There's already a nasty bruise on her chin and April starts unloading the gun she was carrying when she hears more Foot around the corner.

April slides the unconscious body out of view and ducks behind a turnstile. Two men move past her without incident and April flips up before she or the body is seen, and grabs the exposed pipes to lift her up and out of sight.

April shimmies, one knee and one forearm on each of two large pipes hanging from the celing, towards the voices. The platform is full of people, civilians,heads down and trembling. There are even a few kids.When Karai comes into view, she wants to punt her sister in the head. It didn't sound like much, but a wayward boot from her angle would hurt.

" Come out or we start killing hostages! We know you're here!"

April's heart leaps to her throat until she realizes it's not her she's talking to. A black woman in light purple silk below her sees April and they meet eyes while she's scanning for an opening. April hardens her gaze to say 'I'm here to help' and raises a finger to her lips. The woman shakes her head, scared, but doesn't say a word.

" You!" Karai barks and walks briskly toward the woman in purple. She gasps, pleading with whimpers of the word no and her family. Karai is a foot away and April can see that she feels absolutely nothing.

April drops down and bodily roundhouse kicks her like a rag doll when the echos of laughter reverberate through the station.

A train is suddenly passing way too fast and the lights blink in and out so rapidly there's no way it's anything other then cover. So April decides to fuck it and take this gift horse for all it's worth. She flicks out her fan and slices two men who move near her and the hostages in the confusion, then uses the brunt of her weapon to hit pressure points unprotected at their necks. They go down and she turns back to the fray.

There are four of them, all of varying heights and sizes and moving so fast they're hard to see. The largest of the bunch hits hardest and makes the most damage. His sai glint in the dim lighting and even she can see he's enjoying this way too much.

The tallest is against the wall closest to her and working on tying knots in rope that he wraps around each footmen that the largest and the stealthiest one keeps flinging over.

The last one is short and loud, he's whooping and cheering for the hell of it and he's openly distracted over the excitement. April sees it before anyone else, the Footmen with the sword aimed for his exposed head.

The light passes over his face and her world stops turning.

The bright smile, the wide blue eyes and the orange mask wrapped around his face. It's perfectly clear, a singular truth to put all her suspicions to rest.

April shouts clear,loud and desperate.

" MIKEY, DUCK!"

There's so much noise she fears for one terrifying second he won't hear, but he ducks swiftly down before the crippled Foot's sword sloppily slices through the space his head once was.

There's a pregnant beat where all four brothers eyes are trained on her and the rushing of the trains and moans of the injured are the only sound but April doesn't pay them mind. The only thought in her head is how the Foot soldier behind her youngest brother is still standing and his sword still in his grasp.

She rushes forward and hits him four times in rapid succession. Two swift punches to the chest, one to the arm holding his sword that assures it's clatter to the ground, and an uppercut that sends the limp soldier flying back with hard momentum against a wall that hits with a sickening crack.

April turns around and she's nose to nose with a full grown version of her youngest brother, staring at her with an awe that sends the warmth of a thousand suns into her chest.

She opens her mouth to speak.

The light flashes too bright, just for a second, and they're all gone.

The hostages who aren't hurt run to where the boys escaped through the service tunnel, asking who ,what and why. The others crowd around her, drowning her in hugs and thanks yous. She mumbles ‘you're welcome’ a few times and pushes out of the crowd as politely as she can.

Her thoughts are buzzing rapidly in her head like flies around the singular goal of 'Find them. Find Them Find them.' And she runs. She follows the laughter, the cheering and the feather light footsteps that follow them as they leap across building tops once she makes it past the police and barriers again.

The night chill stings her eyes and her lungs burn because they're so much faster, but she refuses not to catch up. They stop on a high rise apartment, she can barely see the edges of their masks in the wind. She's climbing the fire escape before she registers that she might spook them.

That they were babies when they last saw her and they might not remember.

As far as she knew, April O’Neil had been long forgotten.

" Did you see that?" Mikey says ecstatic. She stops at the edge of the roof, watching. Her youngest brother still does the same little dance of excitement he used to when he was three. It's as endearing as the baby fat still present on his cheeks.

" That babe knew my name! She kicked ass!"

" Who cares?" Raphael says and slaps Donatello on the shell. His mask is red and he's covered in scars, but his smile is radiant.

" That was awesome!

" No-- Mikey's right." Leonardo says without as much excitement. But she can see by how his feet twitch that adrenaline is still pumping.

" Don't say that. It gives me hives." Donatello jokes and laughs when Mikey punches his arm. April doesn't know why, maybe it's because Donatello, the shy and introverted brother jokes now. Or maybe it's because Raph is smiling so bright or Mikey still had his childlike wonder behind his eyes.

Maybe it's because they're alive.

But for whatever excuse, she flicks her thumb across her younger brothers faces on her phone screen, levels the camera, and snaps a picture of the moment.

The picture actually snaps, the flash goes off, and all five of them freeze.

Fuck.

" What was that?" Mikey whispers, hand posed for a high three that Leo hadn't moved to return yet.

" It's a camera flash." Leo says quickly. Alert.

Oh fuckity fuck fuck.

"By my calculations it's a girl."

How can he calculate-- nevermind.

April steps up the ladder, to introduce herself and not make a scene. But chains rattle before she can move and wrap around her ribs tightly. She's yanked up , like she weighs nothing and 130 pounds of grown woman are a feathers comparison, onto the roof hard. The chain rakes roughly against her skin when it untangles and she grabs her stomach to gasp when the wind is knocked out of her.

She gains her footing quicker then she would've liked to, but her brothers are trained. Splinter gave her her last request and did it much too well. She's proud, so so proud. And when she's done beating up which ever one of the little brats just man handled her, she'll tell them that.

The ground quakes, like a miniature earthquake directly under her feet, but she stands ground. She can see three toed feet wrapped in bandage between the hair that covers her eyes.

" Give me the camera." Raphael rumbles. No room for argument but she'd beg to differ.

Mikey snorts, April flips the hair out her face and the mood is lost. Raphael has a toothpick between his lips and a scar across the same point. His shell is held together by duct tape and hope.

" He's doing his batman voice."

" We can hear you--! “ Rapheal spits and takes a steps forward. April steps back, fingers twitching towards her fan and the concrete shakes behind her.

" Knock it off, Raph!"

She turns sharply and Leo smiles down at her from the ledge, tight and annoyed.

" Miss, forgive my associate. He forgot to say please."

April cranes her neck up to see him, the street light illuminates his silhouette like a halo and he's so so BIG. Her back meets carapace and she turns again, she's surrounded from all angles and she'd really miss that ladder of she wasn't trained.

" Woah woah!" Mikey takes her reaction as fear and holds his hands up placatingly.

" Don't freak out! It's just a mask. See?"

The orange peels away from his eyes and she can see it. She sees her baby brothers face.

It's been a muffled,dull beat in her chest. Her heart, that is, since she left. She'd smiled. Laughed. Cried and cheered like anyone else. But she never realized how fake it'd all been. A mask to hide her pain from even herself. The mask falls when his does and her heart is beating like thunder at sea. Each flash, each thump, sending a new wave of love and excitement into motion that second she confirms with every fiber of her being that Michelangelo Hamato-O'Neil is alive and standing in front of her.

" Monkey." April breathes, the first thing she had yet to manage. A nickname she used to call him from time to time that shouldn't mean anything. Her fingers flutter towards his face. His smile dropped when she spoke and looks at her hand like it's on fire. But he doesn't move.

Mikey's brows suddenly furrow.Her fingertips brush his warm green cheek and her phone is bumped out of her pocket by the tip of a bo.

" Woah! No no no--!" April startles and turns grabbing at her phone in the air a second before Donatello catches it. In his defense, he looks apologetic when he plugs in a usb from his mountain of tech attached to his shell.

" Sorry, Ma'am. I just have to wipe--"

His large green sausage of a digit moves to swipe across their own childhood faces, the glow of her screen illuminates the outline of his current face and his eyes are locked on her. She doesn't care about the picture she just took, but their only family photo is on there.

It'd been years since she got the film on the camera developed, and despite meticulous care, the original polaroids were yellowed with age and glossy with dust. She couldn't keep them out in the open, and years of hiding hadn't done as well for them as it did her actual brothers.

The last clear copy of their last day was in that phone. Donatello would swipe by the photo and delete everything without meaning to. He'd be crushed later.

She wasn't letting that go.

April's fan is out in seconds and her throw cuts the usb cord like paper. It bounces against the adjacent building and lands back in her hand before she has time to forget it's cool touch. She kicks and their distance is perfect for the tip of her boot to hit the phone up into the air.

April holds open the collar of her shirt and the phone lands in her bra soundly. Breast cancer be damned. None of them were going down there.

" No." April says with finality and Donatello is slack jawed, looking between his empty hand, still gripped like the phone is there, and her chest with a growing shade of crimson in his cheeks.

She looks around the roof in wide eyed challenge and meets every set of eyes she passes. Large and disbelieving but bright with a leveled curiosity instead of fear.

" Anyone? Nobody wanna try-- put your hand down Mikey."

Mikey's hand shoots down from behind her. She can't see him, but the wind makes a zip sound with how fast his arm hits his side.

April closes her fan with a flick of her wrist and Leonardo simultaneously presses the tip of his sword against the phone in the center of her breast. She flicks her eyes up to his face, his gaze isn't as hard, but no less intense. The light but sound pressure pushes harder by a hair when blue orbs clash.

" You're not leaving with the phone, ma'am."

" I beg to differ." April uses her closed fan to push the sword away. It doesn't budge, and Leonardo smirks, his hairless brow raised in a ' whatcha gonna do now?" kind of challenge.

April's jaw clicks.

" I'm literally going to have to beat some sense into you twerps, huh?"

April strikes before Leonardo can finish his snort. She slashes his gauntlet and it's too hard for her to do damage, but it's a surprise and that's all she needs. His grip loosens a fraction and she uses the opening to run the metal edges of her weapon sharply around his katana and flick it out of his hands.

Four brothers watch dumbly as it flips through the air and the grip lands soundly in April's open palm.

" Uh." Mikey adds helpfully.

Leonardo does a double take between her and his hand before his second sword replaces it. Raphael's scowl is replaced by a shit eating grin and Donatello grips his staff like it's a comfort from his awkward stance a ways off. There seems to be an inner dialogue each of them is running through, whether or not to actually fight her. She hoped their reasoning is behind her skill level or species and not her gender.

" Now--" April stands straight and props the hand with Leo's katana on her hip. Casual and non-threatening. " Can we stop fighting for three seconds so I can get a word-- oop!"

April dodges Raphael's chains that aim for her arm with a split second veer to the right. Her eyes are wide and hot with sudden rage.

" You did NOT." April shouts in disbelief and outrage because he did NOT just DO THAT.

Raphael smirks, but he'd just awoken the beast. He's opposite to Leonardo and she's packed in a turtle defensive sandwich. He twirls his sai like a child would sparklers, light and careless. Because he can. It's a show of dominance over her admittedly unnecessary showing off.

But Raph got his first taste of rage from somewhere, and April suddenly looking forward to showing him exactly who does anger best in the family.

Mikey covers his hands with his mouth and whistles slowly, blue eyes flicking between them like he's preparing to watch the showdown.

" You're gonna get itttt." Mikey jeers and Raphael is still smirking until he looks back and sees Mikey is talking to him. Raph gapes and spits something crude that makes Leonardo chastise him for using his weapon or some of the other brash things he'd done in the last few minutes.

She and Mikey meet eyes for a second. He's smiling wide behind his hands and she realizes he KNOWS.

" Damn right he is."

April drops Leonardo's sword with a clatter that gains his attention long enough for Raphael to work in his brothers misstep and move forward. They’re a few feet away each side and she jumps up, using their chests as a step and moving up until she's at the perfect height to grab their bald heads and smack them against each other with a sound reminiscent of two coconuts.

They seem to finally get that she's strong enough to be an actual threat if she wanted to be, and only recoil a second before they're on their A-Game. She stops Leo's sword with his stolen one when she lands back on her feet, and Raph's sai clashes against her fan.

Donatello sputters and Mikey whoops.

" Shut up, Mikey!" The two eldest shout in unison. Raphael actually turns to glare at Mikey when he says it and April holds strong on Leo's side before flipping her fan to the blunt end, sliding off Raphael's sai, and hitting him under the chin once but hard.

April feels bad, she really does. But Raphael going cross-eyed, stumbling back and tripping on his shell over one of the pipes that stuck up from the roofs floor is hilarious. She barely has a second to laugh, luckily Mikey does that for her, before Leonardo slides his sword and she's forced to focus her attention on him.

" This is--" April slides, moving in unison with him in what would be a fantastic display of skill on both their parts if he wasn't serious about beating her.

" --really unnecessary!"

" Then give me--" Leonardo brings his sword down on hers. Metal screeches against metal and they're nose to nose. "--the phone!"

Leonardo is much much stronger than her and the sword slides. She really hopes they've been trained in kind to her, and as a test she drops the sword.

Leonardo immediately back tracks, wide eyed but no longer on the defensive.He won’t hit an unarmed opponent with a weapon. Especially not a human. His sword lowers a fraction and she uses the change to run forward, hit a pressure point on his arm and watch the appendage go slack.

" Jeez! Didn't anyone ever teach you not to hit your sister?" April huffs with her hands on her knees in a show of casualty, finally letting herself catch scarce breath.

Leonardo is fully prepared to keep moving but finally freezes at her last word. He sees her. Finally sees her and rapses weakly into a sudden new found silence.

" April?"

She smiles brightly, a fist slams into her temple and the world goes black.

\---

" Oh god she's dead!"

Not dead, April's mind helpfully supplies into the darkness behind her eyelids. She's coming to, she realizes and feels large hands gently touching the tender spot on her crown. Um, ow.

Raphael punched her. Not necessarily unwarranted but she still ticks another mark on her shit list for him to deal with later. The makeup crew was going to have a field day with the bruise this one was gonna make.

" She's not dead!"

Donatello.

" At least I hope she's not…"

" It can't be her." Leonardo was mumbling close to her ear. Like he's trying to convince himself of it. She laying down by his side, probably. She feels knees next to her arm on the side his voice is coming from, and another set to her other side is Donatello. There are frantic footsteps, Mikey. And grumbling to her left. Raphael.

" She's dead! You killed her and now she's dead!"

Mikey's screeching is hurting her already killer headache, and joins in with Leo and Donnie on the,

" Shut up, Mikey."

It goes silent when she groans with them and April realizes her eyes are still shut, so she opens them gingerly. It's still dark, she knows that.  So the little light Donnie has in her eyes seconds later makes her reel back in pain and mild shock.

" Donnie, stop." She whines and bats it away pathetically. She's carefully helped to sit up and she sees it's Mikey after a few slow blinks.

" You good, April?" Mikey asks quietly and she manages a smile.

" Not dead, Monkey." She says and his face lights up like a Christmas tree at his nickname. He looks like he's barely containing a hug when Raph does a vocal double take.

" April?" He says incredulously from her left. He's been in silent worry until this point, she can tell by his tense shoulders. He's probably never hurt a human person like that before. At least she hoped not.

" Raphael." April says slowly. Donatello and Leonardo have been gaping at her since Mikey said her name again and now Raphael joins them.

They know.

Carefully, she raises a hand to his cheek like she did Mikey. His eyes go wide, his breath is frozen in his chest when their eyes meet.

She slaps him across the face.

" WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" April shouts and the group flinches. Raphael gawks, the hit was barely a bee sting to him.

" You punched me in the HEAD, asshole! Who does that?!"

Her livid scowl moves to the rest of the group and they jump a good foot into the air.

" And who's bright idea was it to start putting our family crest on the side of CRIME SCENES?! You're not the only Hamato's in existence, you dorks! Are we forgetting that we've been hunted since your first Mutation Day?! YOU ARE NOT BATMAN."

" And you!" She turns to Leonardo and his emotional smile makes her visibly falter. It looks like his cheeks hurt from how bright it is, and the wetness of his eyes makes her own eyes grow hot.

" The watch thing was stupid." April says barely above a whisper. Leonardo lets out a wet,emotional breath from his smile and that's it.

April's lifted off the ground by four sets of arms in the most bone crushing hug she's ever experienced. She doesn't know who to move to first and decides to just kiss every green thing her eyes cross over.  Everyone is laughing in joyful disbelief and the one or two wet patches on her shoulder and sides solidify that there's not a dry eye in the house.

" I've been looking for you for months." April says into the crook of Donatello's neck then looks up to question the group.

" Why did you leave the lair?"

" Dad made us." Leo says. His smile is still blinding and he's looking at her like she could disappear any second. At the same time, he's not sure if she's real.

" We left after you did. He said it wasn’t safe anymore."

" The lair!" Mikey grins, his cheek pressed to her shoulder blade.

" That's so cool. We gotta use that."

" Dad." April says in question then gasps.

" Splinter! Is he--?" She looks around the tight circle desperately and Donatello quickly sees what she means and shakes his head frantically.

" No! No he's fine! He's back home right now."

" Thank god." April sighs while the weight of the world seems to lift off her shoulders. If her brothers weren't keeping such a tight hold, April feels like she'd be floating.

" Look at you guys!" April says when her feet finally touch the roof again. Despite releasing their grip, the group barely takes a step back and Mikey hasn't let go of her sleeve.

" You're huge!"

She lifts up Raph's arm for inspection and he preens along with the rest of his brothers.

" Your bicep is bigger than my head." She gapes. Raph grins and flexes said bicep and April snorts.

" And you still kicked his ass." Mikey mock whispers and Raphael snatches his arm back to smack Mikey across the head.

" Ow!"

" You're brunette!" Donatello observes while his brothers bicker. April turns and cranes her neck to look up at him.

" You're still blind." April shoots back and Donnie suddenly looks like he hit the jackpot and scrambles to get his glasses off.

" Not at all! I actually programmed a screen into lenses that plugs into my on board computer system--"

He places the lenses over her face and the world tints green with the glass. There are heart monitors for all his brothers, statistics and lines of code pint pointing accuracy of targets in the distance. A passing bird is locked on screen and tells her how hard to throw Donatello's bo staff to hit it down from their area.

She always knew the second youngest was smart, a genius even. But this level of technological prowess was unheard of for her father, a man with a masters in bioengineering, let alone a teenage boy without access to a proper education. Her inner scientist is glowing.

" This is amazing, Donatello." April voice bleeds with pride and Donnie's heart rate jumps with the flush of his cheeks and the snort of his flattered laugh. He seems to glow too.

" We could make that pack smaller though. Too bulky. Ever thought of programming your own signal instead of wifi hopping?"

April gestures loosely and Donatello sputters for a second before Leo talks over him.

" Your skill is amazing." Leonardo suddenly gushes. He actually looks a little embarrassed a second later at his excitement, but it doesn't dwindle.

" So is yours." April admits and slides Donnie's glasses back on his face before he can take them himself. From the look on face, the idea of an intellectual equal is better than any compliment she could've given him.

" You've been training what, twelve years?"

"  Ten."  Leo said with pride and April whistled.

" I need to get you guys back to Japan one day." April says suddenly and the concept gets her more excited then she imagined.

" I could show you our clan's home. There's so much if our families history there. Our cousin can make you personalized weapons. Oh! You need to meet your Nana!"

" We have a Nana?" Mikey gasps, elated. " Is she old?"

" Super old." April assures and Mikey's smile, as always, is contagious.

" We still have a clan?" Leo asks. He looks like a kid in a candy store at the prospect of Japan. Whither he likes the idea of family, history or new swords, she can't tell. But there's a sparkle in his eyes as bright as the sun.

" A big one." April smiles.

" Not as many ninjas anymore, but we're there."

" Are we the only ones left?" Raph asks and April shrugs.

" The only cool ones."

Raphael blinks then laughs, deep from his belly. He seemed to be expecting something more grim by the protective blankness that settles back over his features, so she gives him that too.

" We lost a lot of our own to another clan. But that's a story for later. Either way, I'm trained. So the art can live on."

" Dude! You can train us with Sensei! " Mikey suggests. The idea makes Leonardo bounce on his feet for a second before his joy is repressed again to save face.

" Yeah. We can have a fair fight." Raph smirks,cracks his knuckles and April levels him a look.

" It'll be fair when you fight clean, jerkwad."

"Ooooh!" Donatello and Mikey jeer. Raphael takes the bait and stands with her toe to toe. Her chin reaches the top of her carapace, just barely.

" You wanna go, sister?" He challenges lightly, still smirking. Leonardo can't roll his eyes hard enough.

" I think I've knocked you around enough tonight, Raphy." April teases.

A fire sparks behind his green eyes and Mikey pulls April bodily back and holds her in a hug from behind.

" Hey! You already almost broke her once tonight, Raph! Learn to share!"

April laughs and Raphael scoffs. Donatello and Leonardo share a look that April can't read, secret sibling communication. Something they hadn't had in a long long time.

She sweeps her brothers, the light hearted bickering and playful banter falling into white noise as she finally gets a good look at them.

Donatello's eyes have bags under them. Light against his dark olive complexion, but present. He seems happy and active at the moment, but there's a heaviness to his shoulders and a weakness to the corners of his smile. His fingers have aged tiny scars and burns that blend in almost perfectly to his calloused hands and she wonders how often he did experiments without gloves as a child due to his lack of fingers. Or how long he was behind a screen before he came out tonight. Four hours at the least judging by the redness towards his tear duct. She wonders again, about how many of those were spent in silence. Alone.

Raphael is covered in scars. His lip is split by a line of light green that reaches just under his nose down to his chin. It's deep. But a few across his arms, two on his left knee, one on his pinky finger and seven on his right bicep are the same if not deeper. His hands are textured like he'd never spent a day without working with them. The toothpick between his teeth is balanced perfectly when he speaks, and his grin never slips in the moment. But his eyes hold a fire that singes her with it's heat. So much raw emotion packed into one man-- one kid. It was a burden. She could see it.

Michaelangelo is clear of scars. The telltale bumps and bruises of early childhood sure, but nothing like the others. He's the smallest and the youngest and the brightest. Where his siblings hold tiredness and guilt, he holds sadness. Behind his eyes, there's a will so strong that it makes her look again. He'd never admit to it, but he was the backbone. Not the strongest, or the bravest or the smartest. Without him, they would've crumbled years ago. Even now, he can't allow their family to slip into silence.

Leonardo is an open book. For all intensive purposes, he's her. An overachiever with a love for his father and his work so deep, that he'd lose it all for it. He got lucky, or they did, that his family's cause was a just one and that they were the good guys. Hd dedicates his life to his passion and his passion to his family. He tries so hard to be the responsible, good example that he hides himself behind perfect posture, a blank face and a sharp sword. He wants to smile and laugh and poke fun. His brothers break him. They break the facade and see Leo for Leo because they need the real him just as bad.

" You've all grown up."

April says beyond a whisper. It doesn't even register that she'd interrupted something or that they'd been talking to her until four sets of eyes are staring down at her with equal silence.

" I missed so much."

Tears prick against her eyes again and she presses her palm against them to try and stop the flow. Much to her misery, she chokes a sob back. Embarrassment or resentment burns her in stomach , but arms around her shoulders tighten and a nose burrows into her neck from behind.

" I missed you all so much." April openly sobs. Her hands lower from her face, eyeliner covering her palms that only hints at how awful must look. Mikey can't see, but he also doesn't care. So she holds onto two of his large fingers with all five of hers.

Her shoulders hunch and she gasps between breaths for two seconds before she's completely surrounded again. Raphael grabs her around the waist,presses his nose to her hair and breaths,mumbling against dyed brunette.

" We missed you too."

Her heart breaks at how small his voice sounds. Donatello squeezes in and she takes his hand so despite the lack of room, so he can still feel her grip.

Leonardo barely manages, but he wraps his arms around everyone and leans down so his forehead touches her hair.

At this point she can barely breath. If it wasn't her crying, the tightest of her brothers hug or the lack of space, it was how happy she felt. This hug wasn't light hearted and pury joyful like the first, there was no reason for it to make her anything other than sad.

But for once in her life, she was surrounded by family. And they weren't going anywhere.

_My milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard and damn right--_

The group lifted their heads in unison. April's tears stopped like a faucet switch and she rubbed her eyes with her sleeve. The yellow leather came back spotless. She'd cried herself clean.

With a tired laugh , April slid a hand into her bra to get her phone. Their groups wide surprised eyes at her ringtone slowly started to dissolve the sadness, which faded into muffled snickers while they, sluggishly, moved away from April so she could fumble with her phone.

She sniffed and stepped towards the ledge for an area of false privacy, then shushed her brothers with a finger to the mouth, which she knew one if them boyishly mocked behind her back going by the giggles. She accepted the call with a tap to the screen, over her own childhood face.

" Hello?" April said quietly, voice hoarse.

" APRIL FUCKING O'NEIL I KNOW YOU DID NOT LEAVE VERN AND RUN INTO A GOD DAMN HOSTAGE SITUATION."

April yanked the phone away from her ear at lightening speed and flinched at the shrill screams. Her brothers each matched her wince and leaned back from the phone despite the fact they were a half a roof away.

April turned back sheepishly, smiled towards her family, who seemed to have varying degrees of confusion and amusement painted on their features. Donatello flashes her a pitying thumbs up and April turned back around to gingerly hold the phone back towards her ear.

" Irma, listen--"

" April." Irma interrupted. Her name dripped with a venom that April had only heard her use on words like 'taxes' and 'meninism' . A nice sized pit formed in her stomach which she could only describe as knowing she was in the dog house.

" If you are not back in this apartment in one piece in the next ten minutes, I am going to personally hunt you down and murder you."

If April didn't pale at the threat, the rest of the roof did. She nodded stiffly, then remembering she wasn't visible, cleared her throat.

" Ten minutes. Right."

Irma hung up on her end with a parting mumble of 'fucking gingers' before the line went dead.

" Girlfriend?" Raphael asked with a grin that showed he had nothing but enjoyed the altercation.

" Roommate." April clarified, slipping her phone back into her pocket.

" If she was my girlfriend, I'd probably already be dead."

" Bitches, man." Mikey said with a put upon,theatrical  sigh and his hands on his hips.

This time, April hit him.

" Ow! April!" Mikey whined, rubbing his afflicted shoulder with a pout. She wasn't strong enough to actually hurt him, but it was the thought that counts.

" Watch your mouth. Never call a girl a bitch."

" Great, two Leo's." Raph mumbled to Donnie who snorted. And despite the negative implication, the brother in question stood a little straighter. Like the comparison was a compliment.

" I guess seeing Splinter will have to wait." Leonardo said and the mood drifted down and out instantly.

She had to leave. Again.

" Yeah." April said, eyes moving to her boots sullenly for a moment. The thought seemed to travel along the group and Mikey shuffled his feet. Leonardo's brows furrowed and looked to find his brothers in the same braced position, ready for the disappointment of another amount of absence.

Hell with that, she thought. These guys are stuck with me.

" Tomorrow night." She said. " Eight O'clock. You guys pick me up."

Leonardo perked then nodded with enthusiasm.

" Y-Yeah! Right! We can do that!"

" We can find you. Or I can." Donatello said. Just the implication of the skill he'd need made a smile split her face again.

" Yeah, if Master Splinter doesn' kill us." Raphael spat.

A beat or silent realization , the other three Brothers groaned in unison and slumped in place.

" Oh we're so dead." Mikey flopped his head onto April's shoulder and she put an arm around him instinctively. It was the first time in a while her instinct wasn't to scissor kick.

" What did you do?" April asked. Leonardo looked like a puppy who got caught in the garbage, head bowed.

" We're kinda…not allowed to be on the surface."

" No." April said in horror and Leo sank lower.

" We snuck out." Donnie confessed weakly, fidgeting  with the placement of his glasses.

" You broke the super rule? Guys!" April chastised.

" Do you know what we had to do to keep you from getting murdered up until now?"

" It's not a big--"

" Oh ho ho."  She moved Mikey off her and raised a finger to Raphael's scarred lips. He looked at the digit like it insulted his mother.

" It is HUGE. You're all going to go home right now, apologize, then butter up your father like you've never done it before so you're not in deep shit when I come over. I want a happy family reunion. Capiche?"

" Capiche." Chorused back at her, sad and defeated.

" Now shoo." April said. Leonardo opened his mouth and stepped forward but she raised a hand to both  silence and pause him.

" No. No more goodbyes."

" Sap."

"Raphael I am going to physically fight you." April playfully warned. A quick peel of laughter shook the roof, and then they were off.

No goodbyes, but they kept their eyes on her and waved until the very last second. They moved towards the roofs edge, and to her horror, jumped.

They appeared a few roofs down seconds later, grinning from ear to ear and in Michelangelo's case, blowing dramatic kisses for her to catch.

April watched their shadows fade into the night and for once in a long time, let out the breath she was holding with a smile.

\---

" THEY'RE ALIVE!"

Irma slaps her across the face a second later. April swung her head back from the force and gaped at Irma, who now seemed calm from her firm footing in the doorway. And despite her wet hair and fuzzy supergirl pajamas, she still held an air of authority.

" That was for scaring me." She said matter of factly.

" I have done my breathing exercises, we're good."

She waved her hand forward.

"Please continue."

April blinked.

" I deserved that."

" You did. Now who's alive?"

Having the momentary lapse, the smile split across her face again and she scooped Irma up into her arms, twirling her in a hug.

" My boys!"

" Woah Woah woah!" Irma said, placing her hands on April's shoulders to get her to stop spinning and look her in the eye.

" The boys boys? The baby brothers boys?!"

April's smile was so big it hurt and she nodded even harder. Irma gasped and her hands flew over her mouth in excitement. April laughed out of pure joy and Irma hugged April back, strong and tight while her own laughter bubbled over.

Vern walked out from the hallway and blinked a few times, following their spins with his eyes and taking a taking a slow sip of a newly acquired soft drink until the slurping got their attention and Irma was dropped down onto the floor again.

" Is this ' April's not dead' happiness or something else?"

They girls stopped spinning and April, in a fit of elation, ran over to hug him too. Vern practically turned purple, melting like butter in her arms.

" Just-- happiness!" April said and smacked a big kiss to Vern's cheek. Vern wobbled when she let go. Smiling dopily.

" Yay Happiness."

" Now what? Why aren't you with them? Where are they?" Irma asked rapid fire, the ends on her hair tugged dry in her anticipation.

" Well someone threatened to murder me if I didn't come home." Irma frowned and April held up her hands placatingly. " As I said-- deserved. So I'm meeting them tomorrow night."

" Oh Apes." Irma suddenly squeals, hands over her heart in a fully sincere way.

" I'm so happy for you. This is fantastic!"

" I feel like I'm floating." April says honestly. Her smile can't seem to leave her face, even as her adrenaline starts to fade and she flops down ceremoniously on the couch.

" They got huge. And they're so sweet and so full of life." April allows Irma to slide in next to her on the couch. She lifts her head so Irma can place it in her lap and play with her hair. Vern, still on cloud nine, takes up residence by her feet.

" I love them so much." April says with meaning.

" I knew I loved them. But I never got it as bad as I did tonight. I'm just--" she throws her arms up, so full of love. She wishes Mikey was there so she could use up his inner attention whore.

" I'm so proud of who they've become. "

" You sound like their mother." Vern comments and April waggles a finger.

" Sister. Just a very overbearing big sister."

In a random blink of thought, April looks up at Irma, whose half way through a braid.

" They liked the ringtone you picked out for yourself by the way."

" Ringtone--" Irma squints in thought, a look confused often for her bad sight despite wearing her thick rimmed glasses, then looks down at April, appalled.

" Did I call you when you were doing the big reunion?!"

" We were crying in a group hug."

Vernon winces through his teeth and Irma blanks.

" Oh my god. I'm a bitch. I ruined your LifeTime movie moment with your family,April."

" You're not a bitch." April chastises and smacks her lightly on the arm. " You're a concerned best friend. We're getting hitched if neither of us are married by forty. You were making sure I stayed alive until then."

Vernon's brows shoot to the ceiling and both women groan.

" Stop making it weird,Vern!"

"Mind out of the gutter!"

Vernon gapes. " I didn't say anything!"

" Your eyebrows talk for you."

"Wait, speaking of life and death here--" Irma interrupts. " How did you find them? Last I checked you were running into a hostage situation on the subway."

April thinks of keeping everything a secret from her literal only friends in the world for a nano-second.

" We're all ninjas."

" April. What the FUCK."

And she still doesn't stop smiling.

\---

April gets a text that night before bed. A winking monkey emoji and five hearts from an unknown number.

Heart in her throat, she puts Mikey in her contacts with his chosen emoji by his name, sends him a screenshot with ten hearts, and gets two messages in rapid succession seconds later.

Donatello sends her a smiley face with big nerdy glasses and fifteen hearts. Leonardo sends her two swords crossed as an X and twenty hearts.

Raphael takes a few minutes and his message is just the poop emoji and more hearts than one message can hold. He texts her a second later--

'That was not me do not make that my contact I stg'

Mikey texts her the second after that.

' do it do it and never look back'

' If he's texting you ignore him. April im not kidding'

' Make it only the poop.' Leo's text encourages.

Donatello sends her a thumbs up and she's suddenly in a group chat that Raphael is filling with creative swear words.

Her phone vibrates on her bedside table for the three minutes it takes her to breathe again after reading the first ten minutes of messages and laughing breathless into her pillow.

She ignores the new messages, most are garbled letters from accidental mid-fight button pressing no doubt, and sends Raphael's contact screen shot.

An angry face baring its teeth and two poop emojis for him and everyone else too.

'Your the worst' is Raphael's response and April says she loves him too.

Donatello just sends--

'*You're'

Her next message is a blurry photo from Mikey of an all out brawl between the two middle brothers, Leo trying to play ref and Mickey's smiling face peeking up from the corner behind his own thumb.

This is going to be the rest of her life, she thinks as four more blurry photos fill her inbox.

And no thought makes her sleep easier.

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (( And now the boys are back! We only have another chapter or two left, so kudos and comments are really appreciated!))


	7. The First Fight

April takes a much needed half day at work. She pre-records all non-celebrity endorsed segments for the next two days with Vernon, who takes down three espressos to match her excited energy.

They start at nine and end by two thirty, and April uses the hour she was going to spend rounding up stuff for the boys trying to ween Vern off his caffeine high and usher him into his own apartment and bed before he crashes.

Irma demands that she spend the entire night with her family and makes her do a secret handshake that they never mentioned or practiced before to make sure she swears to take the following day off too. Bernadette, as cold as she could be, seemed to be rather kind when it came to long lost family reunions and not hangovers as excuses to miss work.

April gets home at six, takes a long hot shower to cool her nerves and goes through her make-up and hair routine with a heartbeat fast enough to compete with a jet engine.

She wears a t-shirt, jeans, boots and her favorite yellow jacket. She stuffs the original polaroids of their family photos in her pockets (Pigeon Pete included) and walks the ten blocks to the same roof they met at the night before just as it hits eight.

The roof is the same as yesterday, besides a very Raphael shaped dent around spot he tripped. It's late May and the air is warm, the sky is clear and it only smells vaguely like sewage from her vantage point.

By eight ten, she considers calling them. She wasn't sure when or how they four of them got cell phones in the first place but April is in the process of shuffling through her pockets for her own phone when her fingers brush something that's not her phone or the polaroids that makes her pause.

Then the world goes black. Or well, dark green.

" Guess who?"

Her fight or flight kicks in before she can 'guess who' and her elbow connects with a hard throat. The hands fly off from her eyes and she's fully flipped Michelangelo onto his shell before she realizes it's him.

The other three brothers wince and step back, a chorus of 'oooh!' after each blow.

Mikey groans and holds up his hands in surrender from the floor.

" I give!" He croans, voice hoarse from impact and April pales.

" Oh god-- Monkey!" April cries and kneels to help him up, hugging his head to her chest and scrambling to put her hands somewhere that will help.

" Oh my god, I punched you in the throat!"

" You elbowed him in the throat." Donatello informs, rather indifferent.

" Don't sneak up on a ninja." Leonardo shrugs and April narrows her eyes at both of them.

Mikey, now magically fine, simply shrugs and fully wraps his arms around her to complete the hug,content.

" My bad." He looks up from her chest. " Gotta get used to punchy April."

" I'm still regular April." She counters and takes the hand Raphael offers to pull herself off the ground. Mikey uses his legs to propel himself up like it's nothing.

" We're just closer to The Foot around here. You always need to be on your toes." She waves a hand towards the four of them. " All three toes."

" Hai, Sensei." Miley mocks with a bob of his head and Raphael snorts after Leo gives him a narrowed look.

April crosses her arms without a word then raises a brow. Mikey back pedals quickly and offers a placating smile.

" So--" April moves on. " How do we get to the new lair from here?"

Donatello walks up takes the space by her shoulder, pointing off into the distance.

" Four blocks up and six over. Then it's three roofs and it's the third manhole from the left."

April squints to follow his finger while the rest of the turtles converge towards the edge of the roof, looking back at them when it clicks.

" Wait." April says.

" How are we supposed to get over there without you guys being seen?"

Leonardo grins. It's cheeky and mischievous and on the eldest , most responsible brothers face-- terrifying. The feeling magnifies when it suddenly mirrors the other three's exact look.

" What?"April says confused. Mikey gestures to the roofs edge with a smile her way.

" Ladies first?" His look turns to Raph.

Raphael's grin takes a deadly edge towards Mikey and the youngest giggles like a hyena.

" Woah." April looks around the four of them, hoping for a tell. A sign this is all a joke.

" You want me to roof jump?"

" Fastest way across New York." Donatello shrugs, ushering her forward to the ledge.

" For turtles anyway."

" I am not a turtle! In case you forgot!" She says. " I can't do all your crazy super mutant acrobatics! Leaping buildings in a single bound isn't in my repertoire!"

" Not with those legs,Honey." Mikey says with a twang that gets a frown sent his way. He grin is Cheshire anyway.

"I guess you're right." Leonardo hums. Then he snaps his fingers and gestures to Rapheal.

" We'll carry you."

Raph scoffs.

" Why do I gotta carry 'er?"

" You're the only one besides Mikey who doesn't have cargo on his shell. And because I said so." Leonardo says with authority. He's had the air of leadership as the oldest for years, but it finally clicks that he's 'the' leader.

Raphael's general disdain seems to be more apparent every time Leo gives an order, even if it makes sense.

April frowns. That's something she'll have to ask about.

" Then make Mikey do it!" Raph snaps back anyway.

" No! He'll do backflips and she'll barf!"

" I will do backflips." Mikey promises and April elbows him in the arm for furthering the argument. He doesn't mind. It seems to be his usual place in these situations, adding the fuel or dowsing the flames.

The bickering doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon. April raises a brow and shares a look with Donatello. The one he returns is unimpressed and says 'same shit as always' in sibling eye-speak.

" Enough!" April shouts and both elders mouths calm shut and turn to attention. Leonardo clears his throat and stands down, embarrassed. Raphael just locks eyes with her.

" Just do it to help me out. We don't need to fight."

Raphael's eyes narrow at hers. April doesn't flinch after three mississippi's and he seems to take that as a pass to his test, and lowers down to a crouch so she can hop on.

April smiles and dutifully wraps her arms around his neck.  He stands when he thinks she's secure-- then does a quick hop to adjust her on his curved back. His surprisingly warm for someone whose cold blooded.

" You're so tall." April comments from her new view, her head next to his.

" You're so short." He counters without bite.

" I used to bench press you."

"….Touche’."

Mikey cups his hand over his mouth and stands on the buildings edge, his voice muffled over in an old timey radio host kind of way.

" Hello Passengers and Welcome to Air- Awesome! Please keep your hands and feet inside the shell at all times and most of all--" Mikey turns on his heel, grins and falls back. " Keep all projectile vomit aimed at Donatello!"

April ignores Donnie's indignant shout and watches Michelangelo fall with her heart in her throat. Despite trying to keep it in, she gasps and holds Raph a little tighter. She feels Raphael's shoulders puff with laughter. He secures her one last time, the jumps after him.

" Hold on, sis!"

The three second freefall is like nothing April had ever experienced. The world falls out from under them and April shrieks without meaning to. Her arms tighten and Raph makes a gagging sound before they hit they hit the ground running.

It takes a second before the pattern-- run, jump, run jump-- starts to feel less terrifying. The wind is whistling in her ears, her hair is flying around without her control and by the second block April's laughing.

The boys all share and a look and suddenly they're going faster and jumping higher and April can't stop smiling. Her common sense is screaming at her to get down. But she'd never been good at listening to reason.

" WHOO!" April cheers and throws her arms up without thinking about it.

Mikey does though, and snatches her off Raph's back. She squawks into his arms and shrieks when the little twerp does a backflip with her in tow. Leonardo yells at him, but they're both laughing so loud it's hard to hear.

April sees the next drop and waves her arms towards Leo with a huge grin. Mikey seems to get her idea and tosses her up and over to him. Leo pales and scrambles to catch her with a flail of limbs that almost looked calculated if you crossed your eyes a little. Leo throws his arms out, catches her bridal style ,tumbles onto the next roof and keeps running without missing a beat.

" You're a horrible influence!" Leonardo yells above the wind without any bite. April's giggling into his carapace, high on adrenaline and life in general,and when she looks up, he's smiling too despite himself.

" I know right?" April says and whoops into the next drop.

" Pass!" Raphael jeers and holds up his arms like a quarterback. Linebacker? Whoever caught the ball in that sport.

" I'm not a football!" April laughs and Donatello shouts something behind them, so she twists over Leo's shoulder to hear. Leo peers back too.

" What?"

" I said--" Donatello's eyes widen and she watches him skid to a stop before--" LEO!"

April turns her head back in time for Leo to screech to a halt in front of the billboard, and takes a breath right before he loses his grip and she's falling.

It's not as graceful as the movies make it seem. It's not a singular trip and freefall that lasts in a few seconds worth of air. No, April falls back out of Leo's grip backwards and flounders. He has her legs for a second, but he's grabbing for her before he can process he had any grip at all and accidently lets go.

She tumbles through the crevice between the rooftop and the board itself. She sees Leonardo's wide eyes and hears his horrified gasp of her name. April's not sure why, but she ends up looking down and seeing the four story drop she has left. Then two. Then--

She jerks to a halt with a sudden pain in her ankle that shoots up her spine. Instead of wincing, she looks past her hair,upside down, to the Turtle chain her brothers made. And to the startled face of Raphael, who has the vice grip on her ankle.

" No more Pass The April." April says a lot stronger than she thought she could. But hey,adrenaline.

Leonardo smiles sheepishly from the top of the chain, Donatello looks like he wants to vomit, Mikey just plain smiling, and Raphael's head drops forward in relief.

They walk the next two blocks and spray a mustache on the accusatory billboard. It's of an orange juice carton but,whatever.

\-----

April looks down at the manhole cover and wants to barf.

More than she did falling from the billboard ten minutes earlier, more than she did months ago, when she was standing over the cover that lead to the old lair when she thought her world was falling back into place only for it to be ripped out from under her.

But this time, it's excitement barf. She never shuts up about her brothers, but something about seeing Splinter again, HER Splinter, makes her heart beat a little faster.

The turtles make an odd circle around her, watching the shadows and also watching her watch the entrance without disrupting her moment. Mikey fidgets, so April swallows thickly and steps down hard on a loose curve of the cover, sending the cap flying up and flipping in the air like a coin before clattering loudly against the pavement. The boys startle and April looks back.

" How'd you do that?" Mikey gapes and April grins her anxiety away to supply him with jazz hands.

" Science."

" Well, physics." Donnie corrects and she raises a hand for a high five anyway. He looks a little surprised by it then smiles widely and connects with a hearty slap.

Raphael rolls his eyes and not very subtly coughs 'nerds' into his knuckle. Donatello just keeps his smile on her and doesn't seem to mind.

" I had to use a crowbar back when we were little, but it got old so I figured out-- Did you make a waterslide?" April sputters into her own sentence,peering down into the darkness. She didn't see any steps, and the curved metal was dry. But there was the distinct sound of rushing water a ways off that didn't match the sewage movement.

" It's practical." Leonardo says, then scoops her up without preamble. She yelps and her brothers snicker.

" What?! Are we-- no no NO!"

April screams bloody murder when Leonardo jumps down. The boys challenge her with joyful shrieks of their own and suddenly they're all going at least twenty miles per hour down a giant metal shoot. She grabs onto the straps across Leo's carapace and keeps her head tucked under his chin. Light from an unknown source filters in and out, faster then she can get a look around the tunnel with water rushing hard in their ears, and then they suddenly drop.

April squeezes her eyes tightly and muffles her screamed curses into her oldest brother's chest until she feels the water splash lightly from both sides and they hit solid ground.

April waits until three more feet land of concrete before prying her eyes open. First one. Then the other.

Their place is amazing.

Unlike The Lair, it was a large circular area that went up a story or two. There were five different sections surrounding a circular mat that was probably their dojo, worn with age. An entire wall was covered in scratched, but clean, weapons with the Hamato clan crest etched into handles and leather. Yoshi's, from when they left the apartment.

The sections separated into rooms. A wall, head to toe with computers from every era playing old Fred videos to security feeds that covered every inch of the outside tunnels surrounding their home. Another area made up a kitchen, some of their old appliances from the lair mixed with make-shift Frankenstein-esque gear that was no doubt Donatello's doing.

A door was set up against the next section that had a sloppily drawn turtle on a toilet painted against the chipped wood, next to a Sears Tower of toilet paper. Then there were the obviously color coded doors with names written in black against sloppily colored metal. The final section was probably Splinter's area, if the strong incense, was anything to go by (and it usually was). But the rooms were the boys.

Red was Rapheal. The door had indents from fists curved into the metal and a stained poster of some band that she wasn't able to read over the tear across the center. Probably from the four throwing stars stuck into it.

Blue was Leonardo. The door was covered in the scrolls that Yoshi used to hang outside their apartment on New Years, along with a note that neatly said 'Please Knock' with Mikey's name scratched harshly underneath it with a new pen.

Donatello's was void of any decoration, just a hard steel door, stained with acid burns across the bottom and black soot across every edge like an explosion had puffed it out from the inside. It was slightly off it's hinges and shook uncertainty on it's frame when the last of the siblings landed.

Michaelangelo's just had men's briefs stapled to the door.

But the last door, silver and clean, had her name written in loopy,yellow, script. Scratched with age.

" It's yours, for when you came home."

April let Leonardo lower her down to the ground, because when she made eye contact with Splinter, neither of them could move.

Splinter had aged dramatically since she'd last seen him. His fur had grayed around the edges, and the short whiskers that hung from his nose and chin were now long and styled with time. He had a staff masking itself as a walking stick, clutched between his pink fingers. But his eyes ,dark with wisdom, were still as kind as she remembered.

And his yellow robe, set with a green buckle of their crest at the center, was immaculate.

April swallowed thickly and lifted her arms as if to move in a grand gesture, but emotion made them fall limp. So she just smiled.

"Well, I'm home."

Splinter's tail closed the gap and pulled her in tightly. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, but she was nearly too tall now. She pressed herself as close as possible, breathing in his familiar scent, tea and the same musk he'd had since his mutation, while laughing wetly into his shoulder.

They both pulled back at the same time, but didn't let go. April left her hands on his shoulders, keeping herself grounded. Splinter smiled warmly, eyes bright with emotion, and cupped her cheek with his hand. A thumb stroking under her eye in a familiar and warm way.

" You got so old." April said, her voice light like air and happiness bleeding into every syllable. She heard one of the boys snort behind her and Splinter laughed.

" As did you. You are a grown woman now."

April puffed out a laugh of her own and leaned into his touch.

" Japan did me good."

Something seemed to hit Splinter, and his thumb stopped. Carefully, he moved back his hand and looked to April curiously. Slowly but not coldly, April moved her arms down too.

" Do not mistake my question for disappointment. But why did you return, my child?"

April let the little spark of nostalgia bubble over in her stomach at being called his child before she let herself grow somber, bowing her head slightly.

" Yoshi passed away a few months ago."

Splinter's eyes widened a fraction before melting into a sad sort of acceptance. He nodded once. He was probably expecting, or at least hoping, for good news involving Sacks. She'd been so caught up in her brothers she had forgotten to ask of what they told Splinter after they came home last night.

" I'm sorry, April."

" Don't be." She said, stronger than she thought she would. She hadn't talked about Yoshi since he passed. And even now, nearly a year after his death, she figured it would still feel hollow.

" He had a good life. He was happy, at the end. And besides--" She turned back to her brothers, each watching the exchange with a silent respect until then and they perked at her sudden attendance.

" We're together again now. And he's the one that convinced me to stop running."

" So Sacks is still...?" Leonardo pressed lightly and April felt something tighten in her gut at the name coming out of his mouth. It felt like a cuss she couldn't penalize him for.

" Don't worry about him."  She said harshly. The hardness seemed to suprise everyone, but Leo showed it in his eyes. A new cover of seriousness to his blue hues, like he was noting the hostility for later.

They'd never met Sacks. From her knowledge, they didn't even know about the assassination attempt from years ago. To them, he was just the enemy. Every reaction from her must have been further information for them on the mysterious dark figure that they had been told about as children.

Sacks was their boogeyman.

" He's my problem. And if he ever decides to do anything, I'll deal with it."

Splinter's tail, long and pink, twitched from where she caught it in her peripheral vision. He wanted to speak against what she said, it was a flawed statement,but he seemed reluctant to ruin the mood. She decided to quickly remove the burden off his shoulders.

" No more Sacks talk." April said. " Let's just-- oh!"

Glad for the change of topic, April shuffled through her pocket and pulled out the two polaroids, waving them between her fingers teasingly to the group.

" Remember that camera you guys got me?"

" You kept that thing?" Leonardo said after a beat and walked over to peer over her shoulder at the photos.

" Woah. We have baby pictures!" Mikey suddenly gasped from her left. Splinter, Raph and Donatello quickly took up the rest of the space around her, all hunched and close trying to get a good look.

" You had wonky teeth, Donnie."

" You had a wonky face!"

" Look at how cute I am! I think I still have that shirt."

" You guys don't wear shirts. And that barely fit you when you were three."

" Leo looks high."

" Excuse me?"

" Ah-- Stupid. He looks stupid."

" Oh wow that's better. Nice save, Raph."

Splinter gently plucked their group photo from her fingers while the boys absorbed their selfie, bickering about childhood bumps and bruises,Mikey's baby teeth or long lost items the photo brought to light.

April watched him gaze at the picture with a ghost's smile on his lips, and she tapped it with a manicured nail.

" You can have that." She said. " I have copies. You can take all three. I can even get you some frames."

Splinter gave her a warm smile and bowed his head. Very respectful in a way that Yoshi would've commended.

" I would like that very much."

" All three?" Mikey asked, being the eavesdropper he was. The photos seemed to spark a new level of excitement in him. He looked tickled pink at the prospect of more goodies.

" Oh!" April grinned and shuffled through her pocket again, pulling out the third picture of Pigeon Pete that Donnie took eagerly upon recognition.

A thin paper brushed her finger in her pocket and she paused.

" See! I knew it was a cheeto!" Raphael shouted in triumph, harshly pointing at the picture. The trio of boys groaned around him, something about old bets. But the banter fell on deaf ears as April pulled the long forgotten Fan Letter from Sacks out of her pocket and her blood ran cold.

A small red light blinked silently at the corner of the envelope.

She ripped it open, ignoring the letter and pulling out a small phone charm. Something she would've put  on out of spite, to wave in front of the camera at work just to say fuck you to Sacks.

The little eyes of the smiling cartoon Turtle at the end of the chain blinked red.

" Oh no."

Splinter, engrossed in the photo, looked up quickly at the sudden urgency in her voice. April sprinted to the small pool at the end of the waterslide, dropped the chain in then stamped down hard with the heel of her boot again and again until it was a bundle of sparking microchips.

" April?"

April looked up from her sudden rage induced haze to look at the concerned faces of her family,even Mikey looked alarmed, and felt her heart skip a terrified beat.

They were all there. They were real.

She couldn't let Sacks get to them.

" I was chipped." She said quickly. " We need to go."

Four alarms go off at once and April barely has time to blink before weapons are out and the boys are scrambling to pre-set battle stations. Splinter's tail tugs her hard across the room in a harsh way that he never would've done if the blaring horns didn't mean what she thought they did. He's yanking her towards the emergency exit and she grabs his shoulders roughly to combat his strength before he can pull her out.

" I can hold them off, you need to run!" She yells above the sirens. Splinter's face is hard and battle ready, he opened his mouth to speak--

Then the entire room explodes.

Splinter uses his body as a shield and tucks her under his weight. The entire lair shakes on it's foundation and walls spray hard concrete and debris in thick clumps that she can hear hit Splinter unforgivingly. Donatello's bedroom goes off in a secondary explosion that sends a set of descending Foot soldiers flying, and Splinter uses the distraction to bodily throw her across the room and out of the line of fire.

April soars from a second then lands hard behind a fallen chunk of the second floor.  Foot run past her without a second's consideration, and she scrambles up to see her family fighting for their lives in a sea of smoke and burning chemicals.

Foot fling across the room like rag dolls under her brothers superior strength and skill. April's ankle burns but she stands to throw her fan hard across the room and take out two Foot at once who were going for Raphael's blind spot.

Raph looks back for a second and sees her. His gaze suddenly hardens to something she's never seen on his face before, and when her fan bumps the wall and lands back in her hand, she can see his mouth form the word. " Run."

April can't. She won't and she shakes her head harshly at him, and moves to jump forward.  A flash of silver falling from the sky sends them all reeling. And the room goes horrifically silent when the figure lands with a sound that echos through every tunnel in the sewer for blocks.

A man, head to toe in hard metal and swords. His hands are claws, his arms make spears. He stands in the center of the room, a large steel foot crushing their family photos like garbage, and a set of kunai ready to launch at his wrists. The harsh shine of his armour gets Splinter's attention, and the Hamato clan crest, scratched out and painted over with the Foot's, gets hers.

Oroku Saki.

" Shredder." April breaths.

If the crest wasn't enough to prove his identity, the armour was. Yoshi refused to talk about Saki. Or his wife's accident or Karai's betrayal or anything that diluted the new happiness, the new life he'd made with her.

But Nana didn't lose a grudge that easy. She'd tell her long stories, spit his deceit in powerful memories and tell her tales about how the man who became a monster, had turned himself into machine.

It all finally clicked.

Sacks was working with Shredder. Sacks killed her Father, Saki destroyed Yoshi, and now Shredder was coming for her family again. Shredder had taken everything snd he still wanted more.

Well fuck him.

April charged across the battlefield in blind anger. She felt five sets of wide eyes on her at every step, and logic and reason didn't hold any value to her while she saw red. She snatched a mace off the ground from the pile of fallen weapons and raised it above her head and swung with a battle cry full of rage.

Shredder's focus had been on Splinter, and the mace hit him hard across the face and sent him reeling for a good two seconds. He turned to her slowly, looked her in the eyes through his mask.  She realizes she had no other plan when their eyes meet. They're not Hamato eyes. She doubted they ever were.

" That was for Hamato Yoshi." April said with finality.

Shredder's eyes widened a fraction, he raised his arm, someone screamed her name.

" Stupid little girl."

And the world went black.

\--------

" April?! April, wake up! Goddamn it-- wake up!"

The slap made April sit up with a gasp. The pain across her cheek faded immediately when two large hands went over both. They were shaking her, or maybe they were just shaking.

" Raphael?" April croaked, vision blurred with dust and something red. She thought the red was his mask, but when his arms wrapped around her, engulfing her in a sudden suffocating warmth,the blur didn't move and she realized it was blood.

Hopefully just hers.

" Raph?" She croaked again, voice a little weak from sleep. Or rather, unconsciousness.

Raphael's thick arms kept a tight grip on her torso, his head pooled in the crevice of her neck and his breath ragged with, relief? He breath was hot on her cheek.

" You freakin' idiot." Raphael breathed against her collarbone. April gripped onto his shoulders and just held him for a minute. It seemed like he needed it. She thought of why and it all started to trickle back.

She'd charged Shredder. He'd flung her across the room, she hit her head on the-- oh. Her blood then.

" What happened?" April said and ignored the pulses of intense pain across her crown. Two days of noggin blows. She probably had a decent  concussion. If only it was literal when people called her hard headed.

She wiped a hand across her eyes and her vision cleared instantly. Her hand was soaked red, and above that, the lair was destroyed.

Years of growth, crashed to the ground in smoke and covered in rubble. The cages were down across the room, blocking the center dojo and turning it into an arena that was smothered in smoke. The kitchen was covered in throwing stars and wayward weapons.

She remembers that was where Mikey was standing and bile rises to her throat.

The bedrooms were blown open by the explosion from Donatello's makeshift lab, now visibly destroyed inside and out.The weapons wall, the computers, even the food was blown to bits and bathed in sunlight from the new openings in the ceiling.

Everything was gone.

Raphael slowly let her go to sit back on his knees and follow her sweeping gaze.

" Raph." April's voice trembled. He never answered her question.

" Where--"

She turned back to him and the udder defeat on his face made every molecule in her body freeze solid.

"No." Barley above a whisper. Horrified.

" No. No they're not--"

" They took 'em." Raphael said, quickly but broken.

" They took Donnie ,Mikey and Leo."

" Took." April voiced her own thoughts. " Alive."

Raphael didn't say anything to that, just hardened in his eyes. He was covered in rubble and blood that wasn't his on his fists. He got some hits in. Good.

" Splinter?" April dared to ask, forcing herself to shakily stand. Raphael was up in an instant, supporting her by the elbows. Dust and concrete fell off her in piles when she moved. The world only spun a little.

" Out cold." Raphael said without emotion. " I-- I got him set up. In your room. He doesn't--"

He was only going to say 'look so hot'. She could hear it. But his voice broke anyway.

" He needs Mutagen." April decided and Raphael looked up in confusion.

" What?"

" The stuff that made you guys. We'll get it when we get the guys."

April stood tall and started walking towards the uncovered exit. Raphael made a sputtering sound behind her and she was roughly turned around to face him by his large hand.

" What are you talkin' about?"

" What? Were we just gonna sit here?" April shot and Raphael scoffed.

" You ain't goin'!"

" Like hell I 'ain't'!" April snapped. " Raph, if you seriously think you're leaving me behind on this one--"

" April!" Raphael cut through. " You can't do it! You're not--"

" I am not a Teenager? A mutant? A Ninja Turtle?!" April shouted over him.

"You're not strong enough!"

April physically reeled back like she'd been punched. Raphael stood strong,defiant. But his eyes held fear for her that she refused to acknowledge right away. Carefully, she clicked her jaw and looked up at him slowly.

" Rapheal, your last name is Hamato-O'Neil. You know why?"

Raph doesn't answer the rhetorical question and his eyes flicker to his feet, just so he can look away for a second.

" I've been doing this, since I was eight.I gave us that name." April seethes. "Look at me when I'm talking to you."

" You know that's not what I--" Raph starts and April silences him with a finger to the chest. He does as he's told.

" I have dedicated my entire life to you five. Because you're my family." She says. " You are my entire world. And whether you meant physically strong enough, emotionally or whatever-- I don't give a shit! And you know what-- you're probably right! I got my ass handed to me by the fucking Tin-Man back there because I couldn't keep it together!"

April roughly throws her hand towards the door behind them and points.

"  But some psychopath just took the most important things in my entire universe. And if you think for one second that I'm not going to do everything in my power to get them back then we obviously have a lot more catching up to do."

Raph took a deep, steadying breath from his nose. He looked so desperate to get angry, to shout in her face. But--

" If you don't come back. If I can't bring you back--"

I can't lose you too.

Or again. It was hard to hear the distinction when he didn't actually say anything. But she deflated immediately and felt horrible for snapping. Of course he thought she could do it. He wasn't stupid. He was just a kid who watched his family get beaten down and kidnapped only for him to be left behind.

She almost dies in front of him and then she screams in his face when he tries to find a way to keep her out of harm's reach.

She was really going to need to get past her hard head one day.

" I came back once." April says, lighter. Raphael nods and looks to her for-- something. So she just tries to push him forward. That's all he needs before he'll rush in blindly and with purpose. Just one push.

" Get the guys weapons. I saw them by the gate." She finds herself saying." Find my fan, and get enough smoke bombs, throwing stars and kunai for both of us. I'm getting us a ride. You meet me in the alley two streets over in ten minutes max, got it?"

Raphael ran off without another word into the rougher looking sections of the lair to scavenge. April watched him for a brief second, pride in every pour, and turned to leave--

Then stopped.

In a last second thought, April moved through the opening on one of the cages and shuffled through the dirt on her knees. A crumpled corner came into view among the wreckage and she pulled their polaroids.

Heart in her hands , April went into her room.

It was beautiful. Unlike what she's seen from her brother's, the entire place was painted a soft ivory and trimmed with sloppy gold spray paint hearts. There was a crooked white lamp with sheep on the shade sitting on a refurbished nightstand.

The walls were covered in children's drawings, little scribbly green blobs holding hands with a taller figure with bright orange hair. Some with just the figure and a tall brown smudge with a long pink tail. Along the trim, yellow fairy lights lit up the otherwise pitch black concrete room.

And on the twin bed pushed into the corner of the room,Splinter bled on her sheets.

Raphael did a good, but frantic job. Splinter's wounds were mostly invisible under his fur,beside the missing patches, but any blood,from a cut or not, was already bandaged and uncomfortable looking. He had an Iv placed wrong in his arm and it wasn't even dripping. His eye was swollen shut.

April felt sick.

But she carefully adjusted the Iv, then started to loosen the pressure bandages. The drip seemed to help lessen the tension on Splinter's shoulders and after adjusting his position on the bed, he seemed almost comfortable.

Carefully, she slid the polaroids into his hands over his chest .

" I'm getting our boys back." April told him.

Slowly, she leaned over his sleeping form, and kissed his temple before turning on her heel and pulling out her phone.

Show time.

" Vern? I need a ride."

\---

April waited up top for Vern for five minutes before the News Van backed up into the alley. It was already morning and the new found daylight didn't do anything to compliment her dust covered, ripped clothes or the big gash across her hairline.

So it didn't surprise her when Vern did a double take as she climbed into the passenger seat.

Secretly, she did one too, only at the stupid fedora he'd put on.

" Jesus Christmas, O'Neil!" Vern cursed. His hands flew up and fluttered like he wanted to touch her or do something to help. She heard Raphael climb into the back while he was distracted and April just buckled in.

" We need to go to Sacks--"

" You need a hospital!" Vern plowed through her sentence. He quickly fumbled for the keys and the car shook to life on a twist.

" Vernon." April hissed through her teeth at him.

" You need to stop and--"

" Did you call Irma? Irma is going to kill me if you die--"

" VERNON--"

" DRIVE." Raphael's head snapped suddenly between the seats and Vernon screamed like a little girl. Quickly, April slapped her hand over his mouth and gave Raphael a harsh look.

" Really?"

" He wouldn't shut up!" Raph bit back. April used her other hand to point to the back of the van and Raph groaned but sat back down. It was probably the most obedient she'd ever get him.

" Vern." April said softly. His eyes were wide and frantic, looking at her with hysterics in the edges.

" This is Raphael, one of my little brothers. You're going to drive us to Sack's estate so we can save the others. Okay?"

It took a moment of eyes flickering between the two passengers, but Vernon slowly nodded and she moved her hand from his mouth. Silently, he turned forward in his seat and started to drive.

April plucked the GPS off the dash and punched in the address without preamble, then stuck it back when it starts calculating. She opened the glove compartment next and took out a few sandwiches from their secret stash and chucked them back to Raph, who took off the wrapping and ate without needing the motherly nagging speech she was prepared to give.

They drove for three miles in silence before Vernon spoke up.

" So your brothers are turtles?"

" Yeah."

" And that picture on your phone isn't from your childhood passion for monster movie make-up?"

" No."

" Are you really a ninja?"

" Yes."

Vernon swallowed thickly, then jerked his head in something of a nod once.

" Cool."

\---

The lab was far up north in the mountains. It was covered in snow as far as the eye could see, and their GPS turned them in the wrong direction halfway through the ride. April steered them the rest of the way using Raph's homemade 'shell' phone to track its twins.

She'd commend Donatello on that later.

By the time they reached the compound it was noon, the boys had been there for two hours and guards covered every entrance.

Vernon started driving up to the gate, and April unclipped her seat belt.

" How are we supposed to get in?" Vern hissed in a whisper despite being a full mile from the front entrance. April shuffled past him and climbed into the back with Raph, who crouched onto his knees so she could brace herself of his shell.

" I want you to turn around, and ram it."

" Ram it?!" Vern turned to look back them. " They have guns!"

" And I'm on a giant turtle! Let's stop stating the obvious." April said and despite his protests, Vernon turned the car around.

" Why are hot ones always crazy?"

" Comes with the territory." April quipped at the same time Raphael growled on her behalf. Growled.

" When we get in, you take the guards. I'll break out the guys. That doesn't work-- we wing it. Like, break everything."

" Sounds good to me." Raph grinned and twirled his sai between his fingers. It seemed to be a tick rather than a show offy kind of thing like she'd thought.

April looked through the crack in the door when Vern revved the engine. When the car started to gain speed and Vern floored it, the building got closer faster then she would have expected. But hey, first time for everything.

In the final few seconds, April leaned forward and kissed Rachel's cheek. He turned back in surprise and she just smiled, warm and open.

" For good luck." April said.

Raphael stared at her for a second longer then swallowed. The world seemed to move a little slower for them in that second, a moment of calm before the storm, then truck hit the gate with a hard lurch and Raph turned back with time. His voice was as hard and strong as his grip when he braced her for impact.

" Hold on."

The van shot forward hard against the garage of the building and Raphael plowed through both sets of doors like paper. Alarms blared through the compound and April crouched on her brothers back while he ran. He rounded a corner and April flipped off his shell when the Foot soldiers started filtering in. April used her high ground and jumped onto the one with the gun, wrapping her thighs around his neck and twisting until he fell unconscious by her feet.

When she turned back, all four of the other guards were down. Raph flashed her a wide grin and raised a brow teasingly. April rolled her eyes and snatched a key card off the fallen Foot's belt just in case. There was a two way hall, and since Foot were coming from the left, she shot forward and waved to Raph to lead.

The place was a cheap lab full of damp corridors and leftovers from whatever that section of the building was before Sacks suped it to his needs. The walls slowly turned from a pasty,peeling yellow wood to off-white and chrome. They were getting close.

Raph could see that too, and plowed through Foot like they were nothing. April actually had to dodge a handful of flying bodies in his wake. Raph turned through a corridor. She heard him skid, then she felt the air leave her lungs when he called.

" Leo!"

April audibly cried out in relief and ran to turn the corner when the dirt behind her shifted. She moved without thinking and grabbed the body in a headlock.

" Sh--ACK!" Vern gagged and April dropped him.

" Vern?! Why aren't you in the van?" She hissed through her teeth. Raph was pounding on something. She needed to help.

Vernon gasped for air dramatically, a hand over his neck.

"God you're like a busty Bruce Lee!"

" Vern." She seethed and he narrowed his eyes at her.

" What? You expected me to stay in the murder wagon? I'm helping!"

April sighed, bouncing on the balls of her feet anxiously then groaned.

"Fine! Just please, don't die. I really don't need you dead. Just-- grab a gun? Something?"

And Vernon, being Vernon, took on a playful grin and stood tall, hand on his hip.

" I didn't know you cared, O'Neil. You know, after this we--"

" Raphael."

Her brothers name and Shredder's voice made her pale. Vernon seemed to get the picture and followed her quickly to the broken down door in silence, listening with an intensity she'd only seen him have during Ghost Adventures.

" The fourth cage is for you!"

They both watched Raphael suddenly hit the ceiling and fall out of sight. April gasped and Vernon grabbed her jacket sleeve out of shock. Shredder jumped down into the lower area to follow Raph, and April scrambled out of hiding with Vern in tow.

Raphael was already up when she made it to the edge of the balcony. She watched Shredder hit and send him spinning in the air, only to land hard on his shell in a way that made the crack echo.

" Raphael!" April cried out in desperation. She tried to jump down, gripping the metal bars that fenced the edge, but Vernon held her back.

But the cry got Shredder's attention, and he turned, slow and calculated to look up at her.

" You." He said, venom dripping from each letter. April scowled and pulled against Vernon's grip.

" Focus on me!"

Raph jumped up in a flourish of movement and Shedder turned back without a word. He hit Rapheal down like a ragdoll and April felt every vein in her body run hot with rage.

" F-Four turtles. And a robot samurai. Why not? Why can't this be my life?"

April followed Vern's gaze and the anger melted off her face into horror. Mikey, Leonardo and Donatello were strung up in fiberglass cages, arms and legs bound like a frog in a high school science lab, and tubes full of dark red liquid pumping from their veins.

" Guys!"

April ran away from Raphael's fight. They were still making noise. As long as she kept hearing grunts, the slide of metal, he was okay. Raph was still fighting.

She pressed her hands against Donatello's cage and beat down against the glass. His head hung forward, glasses slipping down his face from where his chin met his chest.

" Donnie! Donnie, look at me! You're okay, look at me!"

Donatello's head barely lifted. His lips were blue from lack of circulation and April's breath trembled. He was so pale.

" I can fix this." She told him. April quickly turned and   fumbled with the connected machines with trembling hands. She looked over the monitor. Heart beat,mutagen levels,blood pressure,she didn't dare let her eyes linger there long. Buttons for administering shock, supplements to prevent clotting, a sedative, adrenaline injections----

" Adrenaline." April quickly jammed her thumb hard against the button, pressing until the red bars filled the level gage and the new supplement started pumping through their Iv.

Through the ringing in her ears, through the monitor's alarm warning overdose, she stopped hearing grunts. April looked back at Vern, who'd been watching the fight and had frozen in place, flinched at the same time the slow crack started to echo through the chamber.

" He's gonna kill him." Vernon barely mumbled. He looked back at April and lost all feeling in every nerve when she saw the look on his face.The touch screen splintered under her grip, glass slightly digging into her thumbs but she felt nothing.

" Wake up." She whipped her head to the cages, her brothers with limp heads,blue lips and buckling knees only supported by their restraints.

" WAKE UP!" She screamed and her voice broke with the force.

No one moved. Her vision started to blur with a sudden heat that was echoed by the sickness in her belly, burning up and constricting her throat so tight she could barely breath. She can't loose them, not like this. Not at all. Not her boys. Not her baby brothers.

" April-- April it's working!"

Vernon shoved her over to Donatello's cage and her heart shot up when his head did. Leonardo and Michelangelo came up in rapid succession, eyes rolling back as their breathing became rapid and uneven. April grabbed Vernon tightly by the arm and held it close because she needed something. Each turtle gasped as the adrenaline pumped through their drained systems.

Their restraints popped like rubberbands at new found strength, and April found herself grinning from ear to ear.

" We should move."

April yanked Vern down when the glass broke. Shards splintered through the air and April used herself to shield both of them until the tinkling cracks were overpowered by Mikey's shriek.

" I feel so good right now!" Mikey garbled more then spoke. April stood up and felt Vern wipe the glass still stuck to her jacket.

" Dojo." Leo suddenly shouted." We should clean the dojo! I'm gonna clean the dojo--"

" Endorphins-- Endorphins-- Endor-- Raph!" Donatello gasped and scrambled towards the open drop. Leonardo and Mikey quickly followed suit and started running towards the cracked balcony---

Then all tripped and fell flat over the drop.

Their shouts didn't miss a beat but April scrambled to the edge anyway. Raphael, despite how slow he picked himself off the floor, did. His brothers scrambled around him, fast and hyperactive like when they were kids, and April couldn't stop smiling.

They were okay.

" O'Neil. We gotta go."

April snapped back into the situation and looked up at Vern, slightly mussed but no worse for wear, and took his offered hand to pull herself to her feet.

" The van's busted. We need to get a ride."

" Right. Ride."

April looked back down, and Raphael met her gaze. He was tired, but seemingly just as relieved. He flicked her head towards the door, and he nodded once around their brothers excited rambling.

That was all the confirmation she needed, so she pushed Vern forward, and ran.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (( One more chapter to go!))


	8. The New Start

" Sacks is airborne!" Raph cursed when they all made it out of the estate into the truck yard.

" Eta to New York, nineteen minutes!" Donatello informed readily.

" Get us out of here, Donnie!" Leo ordered and April took up the space by his side to look over the area. She could see a few foot surveying the area, a few on the Helipad guarding Sack's copter, quickly moving out of sight.

" We're surrounded." April whispered at the same time Donnie shrieked and made her turn.

" Oh my gosh they have guns!"

" Get down! Get down!"

Leo grabbed April around the waist at the same time Mikey shoved  Vern down, and tucked her into his carapace when the bullets started peppering the surrounding trucks and snow. It was hard to hear around the foursomes screaming, so April dared to peek in the space between her brothers biceps. The bullets unbelievably started to bounce and ricochet back towards the Foot.

They were bullet proof. Well, that was one thing to take off her list of constant fears concerning her brothers.

" Are you guys okay?" Leo asked her more than anyone else. After all, they rest of them were still standing.

" Good." April breathed and smiled what she thought was probably a little hysterically. Either way, it made him smile.

" We're bulletproof." Raphael said in sudden awe and Mikey grinned.

"Cool."

The Foot, a little startled, quickly recovered and took aim again. Leo grabbed his younger siblings and pulled them close to make their barrier again when the barrage started, then looked to Vern.

" Can you drive that truck?"

" You got it." Vernon said with more strength that she ever seen him have.

Leonardo seemed to see that too and nodded in confirmation then looked back to his team.

" Good. We go on Raph."

April blanked.

" Go on Raph? Wha-- oh my god don't you dare--!"

Raphael backed into the bullets and knocked one of the gunmen out with a well swung fist. He flipped positions and April wanted to rip her hair out when her largest brother pulled a Tarzan and opened his arms to let the metal bounce off his carapace.

She was going to kill him, but that was the only opening they needed to push through. The Foot separated when the protective wall broke and the turtles each took a corner. April quickly pulled out her fan, ready to join the fray when Vernon grabbed her shoulder.

" Come on, let's move!"

April felt a pang of regret not helping, but by the time Vern had pulled her halfway through the cleared path, the boys were already clamoring into one of the trucks. Vernon jumped into the front seat and April jumped into the passenger, only pausing to peak around the divider to her younger siblings in the back.

" You can drive this right?" April asked, making eye contact with Mikey for a second and soaking in the bright smile he flashed at her before she turned back in her seat. The color was already returning to his cheeks.

" Yeah! Totally!" Vern assured unconvincingly and stuck his hands blindly under the console.

" I just uh, need to hotwire--"

April moved his head back and flipped the keys out from the sun visor without comment.

" Or-- keys. Yes. Keys are good too."

The car shook to life and April and Raphael both shouted in unison.

" Drive!"

Raphael gave her an appraising look then grinned brighter than she'd seen since they were reunited. Despite the circumstances, She couldn't help but return it.

" I don't need a back seat Turtle and a front seat O'Neil right now!  April said you're like twelve, can you even drive?!" Vernon barked back but plowed through the gate without further complaint.

The road ahead of seemingly clear, but the only thing keeping her a semblance of calm was the going on playful chattering coming from the back carriage.

" You know, I'm gonna be honest, I really thought you were crazy. Cuz' I mean, Irma has always been kinda loopy so I just figured you were both feeding off the same trip but hey! You're not insane!" Vernon interrupted her attempted eavesdropping with a hysterical lilt to his voice.

" I mean, you're actually a sister to four mutant turtles! And you're actually a ninja chick who was raised in japan learning to avenge your father's murder-- oh my god you life is a fucking comic book."

April, despite the multiple insults littered among his speech, smiled at him.

" I know. My lifes pretty great."

Vernon did a quick double take. His eyes seemed to linger on her smile then flickered back to the cargo hold. And surprisingly enough, Vernon looked back to the road and laughed.

" You are one messed up chick."

" And you're lucky enough to be along for the ride."

" Hey, I'm driving!"

" Targets at our twelve!"

April's smile dropped and she turned back through the partition to see the following car.

Past her brothers shells, through the blackened snow kicking up under the tires and tinted windows, was Karai. Following in a tan jeep, a harpoon looking gun aimed and placed at the roof.

" Shit."

" Shit? Why shit? Don't say shit if you don't mean shit, April!"

" Vernon--" April shouted above the engine and turned to face a rocket launcher.

" TURN!"

Vern threw the wheel hard and the truck dipped from the force so hard April smacked against the luckily locked door. She righted herself quickly, but the cars quickly took the advantage and started to surround them again.

" Vern." She urged, scooching up her seat and pointing to the closest van. " Vern. VERN!"

" I'm trying!"

The wheel fought his every turn, and the truck wobbled uneasily in suit. Her brothers seemed to still be moving around the back unharmed, and the second she tried to look away again to check, the entire truck started to tip and slide.

" Wrong way!" April shouted, and Mikey's voice shrieking on the roof overpowered the thundering creek as they started to propel forward down a drift. The truck shook like a miniature earthquake down the mountainside, and Mikey's torso popping up on the windshield was unheard until he was directly in front of Vern's.

" Just-- keep-- going--straight!" He informed with every bounce, then slid out of sight. A moment later, he popped up on April's side.

" Hey, Apes! Lookin' good! Badass heroine works for you!"

April smiled at the lunacy of it all and knocked her knuckles against the glass. Before he moved out of sight again, her youngest brother tapped his own fist in the same spot and blew her a quick kiss.

God she hoped they were all okay back there.

" You good?" April asked Vern quickly, already half out the window. Vernon kept his eyes on the road but still managed to make his withering look deliver.

" Good is a relative term!"

That was confirmation enough and she pulled herself as far out as she could to get a view of what was going on behind them. The snow was acting almost as a thick fog to block her view. But if she could only get closer, see one of them--

Vernon was commenting on something  behind her, and they hit the snow pile faster than she could process if it was a warning. She flipped before the impact fully shook through the truck, and only grabbed the bar at the side of the truck in the last second.

The wind whipped her hair around her face and blocked her view, and she felt the snow scrape at the toes of her boots while she struggled to keep her legs up. Her screaming got Vern's attention just in time for him to grab her wrist and pull before her hand slipped from the freezing metal bar.

Her hair moved from her face long enough to see her brothers slide under the truck on their shells, and the avalanche coming down hard in their wake.

April struggled to catch her breath back in her seat and slammed the door hard to combat the chill creeping its way up her spine.

" You good? O'Neil look at me."

" I'm fine!" She shouted without meaning to.

A hit from her side of the truck rocks the front of the caravan hard, and the door ripping from its hinges scared her more than she'd like to admit until Leonardo's face came into view.

" Hey, change of plans."

" What plan was that again?" April quipped to make herself feel better more than anything.

Leonardo curses, but she doesn't have time to see the truck before the shock-hook latches between her and Leo's shoulders and sends pulses of electricity through both their systems.

She wants to scream, but the charge keeps her jaw set and her teeth locked together. She can feel the voltage leave through her fingertips when Leo pulls the hook out of it's grip, but the pain is enough to keep her limp when Leonardo lifts her out of truck, even while fighting the blackness edging it's way across her vision.

She feels the snow whipping at her face and the chill at her neck, but can only hang there when Leo keeps them stable on the cliff side by his katana shoved tight into the rocks. Raphael pulls them up, and next things she knows, she's in Mikey's arms.

" Hey, April. Sis, you good?"

" Is she hurt? April, can you stand?" Donatello shuffles over to their side and she realizes she's being carried to the sewer station down the mountain. She can see the pipes and man holes from here. The odd familiarity is almost  comforting. The idea of home.

" She got shocked." Leo informs from upfront, looking back at her guiltily and Donatello gapes at him.

" That would've been nice to know! Jeez,That was strong enough to knock you out!Do you know how many volts--"

" I'm fine." She croaks to interrupt her brothers rambling, but doesn't budge in Mikey's arms.

" Just--" she opens her eyes, not realizing they'd started to close. It's all white skies and white snow besides Mikey's pinched face. " I'm gonna hitch a ride with Monkey until we reach the place."

" Mikey." Vernon corrects, practically being pulled by Leo with how he sinks into the snow.

" She meant Monkey." Raph says gruffly,more than a little annoyed at this point and Vernon shrinks back.

" My bad."

They get the update on the situation down the sewer tunnel. Sacks, being the comic book villain he is,wants to use a virus to kill half the city hoping to get a blank check for his mutagen cure. They all regroup in the garage under Sacks tower where Mikey gently sets her on her feet.

" We need to take care of Shredder." Leonardo decides and points two fingers between Vernon and herself.

" You two get somewhere safe."

" No." She immediately combats, a little incredulous.

" No way. I'm not sitting back on this one. I'll meet you guys, but first, I'm getting the mutagen."

" April, you're hurt--" Vernon says and she silences him with a look.

" Apes--" Raphael steps forward and she gives him the same look.

" Just stop." She says, tired.

" We do this together. All of us, or none of us, got it?"

Leonardo squares her down, all leader and all too ready to stop her because honestly, they both know he could. April doesn't relent in the stare down, and he breaks with the slightest falter in his lips. He knows as well as she does that they're too similar for her to go down easy.

Donatello watches him step back and moves to addresses the two of them.

" Sack's lab is on the thirty second floor. I already disabled the security. You grab what you can and go."

She nods and Donatello doesn't say anymore. Just kind of stares at her then a regretful--

" Good luck."

They all turn to go, even Vern moves ,expecting her to follow. But April just stands her ground and clears her throat loud enough to echo through the whole garage and make them all turn.

" One last one." She explains to her expectant gazes, and lifts her arms with a weak cheeky smile that makes her head throb.

Mikey doesn't waste a second and pulls himself into her arms before she can close them. She kisses his mask, the spot right between his eyes so she can watch them cross and smile a little brighter because he does it to make her laugh.

She has to pull Donnie down, the hug is quicker, but he stays for two kisses, one to the temple and one to the cheek as he pulls away. Raph begrudgingly bends down so she can reach, and kisses him under the eye on a scar she still wanted to get the story for.

When Leo walks up, all power and authority, she just takes his head in her hands and presses their foreheads together.

" Kick his ass, bro."

Leo falters for less than a second. When she turns away, following Vernon down the hall, his smile is still there. And she watches them go as much as they do her.

They slide into the elevator and April takes out her fan preemptively. If Shredder was on the roof, then Sacks was doing the dirty work down below.

She looks at her weapon, worn slightly with age and after today, in need of a good polish. Tang Shen's signature, the one of wife she never met of the father she was gifted, is still preserved despite the slight scratches on the picture itself.

She wonders if Yoshi would be proud.

" Should I kill him?" She asks Vern without looking away from her ragged reflection in the steel surface.

Her hair's a mess, but the snow seemed to wipe off most of the blood from her earlier bout with Shredder in the lair. The gash will probably leave a small scar, a story she'll never be able to tell. Her jacket though, unlike her shirt and jeans which were both ripped and soot covered at odd ends, seemed to survive.

Her makeup was still amazing, if underdone by some bruising around her temple. Kudos, Channel 6 make-up department.

" Do you want to?" Vernon asked after a beat. April looks up at him and he huffs.

" Okay. Dumb question."

" A little."

Vernon squirms a little, unsure what to do with his hands. So he fumbles with the belt loops of his jeans in thought until he manages a response to one of the world's most difficult questions.

" Can you?"

The elevator dings,announcing their arrival.

She guess they'd find out.

April sees Sack's immediately. He's hunched over a tube of the turtle's blood, looking into a tube of green ooze that was no doubt the mutagen she remembered as a child. There's a gun in his hand,just out of sight.  But the way his fingers twitched, the glazed look in his eye, she knew he was waiting for one of them to slip up. He knew they were there.

Vernon, untrained and unaware, steps too far into view and they both duck for cover behind a lab table one second before the bullet is able to even graze them.

" God. This is adorable. Just-- wow. How long has this exact scene kept you up at night, April?"

" Depends, how long has it been since you killed my father?" She snaps without thinking. Two bullets go off , his aim is shit, but Vern flinches both times anyway and brings her back down. It wasn't just her life she was risking.

" I knew it. " Sacks says like a revelation.

" You know, you had me for a little while. When I found you with the asian guy, I thought it was legit. There were adoption papers, police who admitted they helped you that night at the station, hospital reports! " Sacks started to pace waving the gun around only to shoot somewhere random for the sake of shooting.

" Then I saw you. Sweetheart, I gotta tell you, I have never seen murder in someone's eyes before that day."

" You never looked in a mirror?" She spits. The shot wizzes by her ear and makes her head fall forward from the sound. Vernon grabs her wrist like a lifeline.

" This is just history repeating itself." He muses without emotion. " Kirby caught me too. Tried to rat me out, shut me down. Like father like daughter I guess."

Vernon lets go of her wrist and moves. She keeps eye contact and follows him across the room behind Sacks's back before his eyes flicker to the adjacent wall. She doesn't care enough to read, but the button is big and red and she's sure as hell gonna press it.

" Two O'Neil's down. Four to go."

Her fan is out before Vernon gives the signal. Vern shouts her name and she slams down on the button at the same time Vern knocks him hard with a microscope. The room fills with smoke and she can barely see the fray until she's running into it.

Vern's aim is off and he hits his shoulder, but it's enough to make the gun fall from his hand and gives April enough time to jump him. She decides to forgo her training, just this once, and clocks him with a swift uppercut that sends him flying, sprawled into a crumpled heap on the floor.

The smoke clears, Vernon is kicking the gun out of the way, and Sacks is writhing on the ground in pain.

April takes slow, deliberate steps until she reaches him on the floor, then presses her knee into his chest and the curve of her fan against  his throat.

" You killed my only family." She seethes into his glazed eyes. They flicker from her blade to her. Back and forth.

" And when I made a new one, you tried to kill them too."

" I had to run from you for fourteen years." She hisses nose to nose. The fan presses a little harder and his eyes aren't glazed anymore. Years of repressed anger bubble to her fingertips. It'd be so easy to just flick her wrist and end it all.

" I want to kill you." She tells him honestly at the same time Vernon makes a nervous noise across the room. But he doesn't interfear.

The building shakes from the roof down. Vernon looks up, so does Sacks, she doesn't.

Her brothers are still fighting.

So she will too.

" But I'll enjoy watching you rot more." She closes her fan with a flick. Sacks just stares at her, surprised, then lets a slow grin take over greasy features.

" Weak." He says hoarsely. " Just like your father."

And Vernon kicks him in the teeth.

April actually jumps back a little in shock. Sacks is out cold, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth and what looks like a canine laying beside him. When April looks up, Vernon shrugs.

" He wouldn't shut up."

The roof shakes again before either can land another comment and April stands with a curse.

" Go. I'll deal with him and get help. " Vernon says and plucks the mutagen off it's stand and hands it to her.

She catches it and nods, sliding her fan back into it's holster on her belt loop. The creaking from above makes her want to sprint the last few floors to the roof, but April stops first.

" Hey Vern?"

Vern turns to answer and she quickly grabs him by the sleeve and presses a quick kiss to the far corner of his mouth. She was aiming for the cheek, but she'd let it slide that once.

" Thank you." She smiles.

Vernon, red as Raph's mask, just scoffs and babbles. From the looks of it, he's somewhere on cloud nine.

" It's uh-- you know. Cool macho guy stuff. That's just me. A hero. Cool macho guy…Uh,after this do you want to maybe go out and--"

" No."

" Right. Yep. Go get em' Tiger."

\---------

If April didn't have a fear of heights before, she does climbing up to the thin metal stairway that lead to the highest point on the Sacks building.

The support quivers on it's foundation, and she's not sure why until she pulls her weighted, tired form up over the last barrier and sees each turtle trying and failing to keep the tower from collapsing into the street by supporting the breaking beams.

Shredder still stands despite some minor damages to his armour. His plan is ruined, the gas won't escape with the broken tower or the disabled panel system a ways off, blinking with confirmation of deactivation beyond anyone's repair. It's an ancient system compared to the new technology and just proves Saki's need to live in the past.

She's queasy looking up at the falling structure, and just as so when she looks back down and sees Shredder going for Mikey with a large blade glinting in the sunlight.

"OROKU SAKI!"

The Shredder stops dead in his tracks. Her brothers eyes whip up at her, arms and shells trembling under the intense weight that was proving too much for even their mutant strength.

" Looking for this?!" She shouts to be heard above the wind and screaming metal. She waves the mutagen container and takes a step back towards the rail. The farther she goes, the farther he has to get from her brothers.

" Last one! You gonna come and get it or not,Saki?!"

Each time she says his name sends a wave of anger pulsing through him. She can see his fists tremble with their invisibly white knuckled grip, and when he turns, slow and deliberate, she can't see his eyes. But she knows what they look like already.

" Little girl."

He moves fast despite the weight of his armour, obvious by the hulking steps that move him forward in longer strides to combat how hard it must be to move.

The tower starts to crumple, falling forward faster than the movies normally make them, and her brothers are charging towards her and Shredder-- but the tower collapses into the rail at the same second Shredder plows through, hitting April hard in the stomach with his iron fist before they both tumbled backwards off the side of the building.

This free fall is a lot worse than the one the night before, and a scream rips through her before she can think to hold it back. The tower falls stable against the building across the street just as she passes it, and April scrambles in the air but manages to get a hold on one of the beams to hang by her fingertips. The stop is abrupt and rough and sends a wave of pain through her arms that stops at her newly dislocated shoulder.

Her feet slip on a surface never meant to be stood on, and her fingers burn trying to support all of her weight. April tries to focus on her grip, but she can hear her name being called desperately from up above, and Shredder is brandishing another blade from his overpowered arsenal.

He levels his fist just above her line of sight, and the blade shoots out from his gauntlet and slices both the metal supporting her weight and the middle digits of her fingers. She cries out in pain and slips when the beam snaps, sending her plummeting towards the ground below.She doesn't want to scream, throat hoarse and her body tired.

She thinks about letting go, just for a second, before Raphael calls out.

" April!"

His hand grabs her thin wrist on her dislocated arm, but his tight grip is enough that her cry of pain or lack of grip in that appendage isn't fazed and she's held tight. She tries to grab onto his wrist with her other hand, but it's too thick to get a grip on and she hangs as the caboose to another turtle chain.

Mikey looks like he's struggling with a thin sheen of sweat from his position as the top rung. Donatello holds up Raphael and Leonardo supports them both with one hand, the other throwing a katana where Sheddar is aiming his.

The sword hits the mutagen, and Shredder takes out another blade when it shatters.

" Swing me." April says, then again, looking up at Raph.

" Swing me at him!"

Raphael's eyes widen before nodding once. He builds up momentum that's makes Donnie shriek until he gets the picture and swings back too. April has one shot, and with three out of four brothers launching her, she channels the last of her strength to catapult herself across the air and kick Shredder in the center of the chest.

Rapheal lets go when the swing ends up high enough to land them all saftey on the fallen tower. By the time they're all stable with a firm grip on supporting beams, Shredder is nothing but a crater in the road below.

April is gasping for breath out of dwindling fear then exhaustion. She looks down at the metal suit, crumpled in the street, and finds it hard to believe there was ever a man in it.

She turns back to her brothers, exhausted, in pain and relieved beyond belief until the tower creaks ominously and they start falling forward.This time, they all scream. The tower flips a full three hundred and sixty degrees before it lands on the next set of roofs. Before they can hope, it starts to slide again.

" I think this is it!" Donnie cries, cut off by his own scream as they fall again.

" A-Anyone have anything to say?" Leonardo shouts, eyes blown wide with fear as they all look down to another massive drop. April starts to slip, only able to support herself by one hand, and grabs onto Raphael while Donnie admits to something about pop tarts.

" Mikey?"

" I so did not understand the ending of Lost!"

Poetic, she thinks before they all plummet again. There's only one drop left, and no one's dares to look down anymore. All of their heads are aimed towards the sky, taking in what might be their last, hitched breaths.

" Raph?"

April dares to look over at Rapheal this time. Everyone's eyes are trained forward except for hers.

She wants to see them. One last time.

" I just... uh, uh... If this our last moment together, I just want you guys to know I'm sorry! I'm sorry I was so hard on you! Every Time I pushed you I... I threatened you, I yelled at you, I pushed you beyond your limits, it's because I believe in you! "

The tower rocks forward and they fall halfway. Raph grabs her by the waist so she can let go of the bar and hold him with her only good hand. He still doesn't look down at her. But she can see the tears in his eyes.

"I believe in each one of you! I believe in you spirit and your intelligence and your potential! And every time I talked about walking away it was because I was scared! I just didn't think I was good enough to stand next to you and call you family, and say I love you! I love you guys so much!"

The tower starts to tip, the final fall, and everyone looks at her.

So she forces herself to smile for them one last time and swallows her emotions.

" What he said."

A final menacing creek roars in the silence and they can only brace for impact at the cold wind beats against them as they flip through the air. The back of her mind, April hopes that if they go, they all go together. And that none of them feel any pain. Or if it had to be one, that it was her.

Please, just let them live.

Impact comes more gently than anyone had predicted. And when they land, hard but unharmed on the street in a cloud of smoke, everyone is gasping and shakily releasing iron grips on iron bars.

" We're okay." Leo says, letting everyone know that yes, they were.

Mikey makes a theatrical show of kissing the dirty street, and Donatello is taking very small, shaky steps off the tower beam.

" Raph, you cryin'?" Leonardo asks and April looks up at Raph and wipes his eyes with her sleeve before the smoke clears enough to for anyone else to see.

" Dust." She says and Raphael quickly clears his throat and shouts the same thing to Leo, looking at her a little gratefully.

Through a small part in the grey fog, she can see a crowd surrounding  the Shredder shaped dent in the ground.  It starts to disperse and move around them, and April gains all their attention in an instant with a short,sharp whistle she knew Splinter started using years ago.

Two fingers to the crowd, then she points to an unblocked manhole by their feet. Without a word, Raphael scoops her up in his arms, Leo lifts the cap, and their gone before the dust clears.

\--------

The other three are already clamoring around Splinter when they get back to the lair. Raphael stops long enough to see she's spent and gently sets her down on the flattest surface he can find.

" You good?" He checks but she can tell he's eager to run to his father's side. She waves him off quickly with her good arm.

" Go. Go to Splinter." She says in lieu of an actual answer. She'll get in trouble later if she lies, so she doesn't.

Raphael sprints off without another word and the broken lair is silent. April can't stand it for longer than a minute,waiting for sounds of life from the other room, so she gives into the millennial stereotype and pulls out her phone.

Of all the parts of her that were probably broken that day, her phone screen was not. Someone was looking out for her.

Twelve messages, a few texts from the night before into the morning from Irma, asking about how the reunion was going. One or two from the news station about future interviews (John Cena. Great. If she wasn't a meme already--) and four from Vern. Two texts, one saying he made it back to her apartment,one saying they got Sacks's and two missed calls with long voicemails she didn't have the strength to listen to.

April does a quick look around at the crumbling remains of her family's home, and shoots Irma and Vernon a quick text before Leo pokes his head out of the doorway.

" He's asking for you."

He doesn't look sad. More like thankful, with relief pouring off his shoulders in waves. April stands the best she can, the bruise on her stomach from earlier was finally taking form, and walked over to the doorway. The already small room was overflowing with turtle, crouching around the small twin bed meant for her,so she settled on leaning against the white trim and smiling when Splinter turned his head to her.

" Hey." She says. Unsure of anything else that fits at this point.

Splinter offers her a tired smile,pinching back the worry at her disheveled state. At all their disheveled states.

" I wanted you all together, so I could tell you how proud I am."

The boys glow nearly visibly, and April leans a little onto Donatello's shell while he spoke, a little less if not just as swelled with joy.

" I'm just glad it's over." Donnie sighs and he gets a few groans and an 'Amen' that agree with him.

" Not exactly." April winces and four sets of eyes turn to her with varying levels of fear over more-- well, moving in general.

" What does that mean?" Leonardo nervously asked and April tiredly nudges her head towards the open area behind them in shambles.

" You guys can't stay here. I want to get all of you back at my place until we can move you into the old lair."

" Sleepover at April's!" Mikey hoots and April shoots him a finger gun in approval of his excitement.

Leonardo looks a little weary, over moving Splinter or the idea itself, so she covers both.

" Splinter can have my room. And my roommate's mom is a nurse so she's literally the most anal person in the universe when it comes to germs and health. Trust me, we have a jumbo First-Aid kit she's been dying to use."

" Is she okay with us staying?" Leo presses.

" Are you kidding? She'll love you guys." April assures but Raph settles her with a deadpan look.

" Not everyone is gonna love us cuz you do."

" Lies and slander. Now come on, if we leave now we can make it back by eight." April says, hoping to encourage some movement. All five seem a little less than thrilled so she adds a little incentive.

" I'll order pizza."

The flurry of movement almost sends her ass first into the asphalt. Donatello is scrambling to pack up the First- Aid, Leonardo is barking orders about scavenging weapons and whatever gear that's still left to Raphael who snaps back but grabs everything anyway, and it's when Mikey bodily lifts her up and throws her over his shoulder and starts running around the room does she laugh.

\------

They get back to her apartment by nine that night. April ushers Donatello, Leo and Splinter into her bedroom window to get Splinter settled, then sends Raphael and Mikey, who had been playing packmule with all the gear, into the living room.

" Hey,party's here!" Vern cheers from the couch,obviously high on some of the morphine Irma has on stock that she hopes gets passed her way, at the same time Irma pops up from behind the counter with a tray of muffins and shouts " HOLY SHIT TURTLES."

" She's observant." Raph grumbles and shuffled past her to throw the gear down haphazardly on the kitchen table. Mikey gives her a cheeky wave then does the same.

" They're real." Irma hisses at her. Judging by her outfit, one if April's larger workout shirts and a pair of superman pj pants, she wasn't expecting guests. April texted them both earlier, but apparently muffins were Irma's answer to the request "Prepare for trouble".

" Did you get out Black Mamba like I said? " April says over her, tossing a muffin to Mikey over her shoulder. She didn't have to see the goo goo eyes he was making to know they were there.

" What? No-- wait yes. Of course I did." Irma kicks the   first aid kit, more like a first aid trunk, sitting by the counter. But her eyes stay on Mikey, chipmunk cheeks stuffed with muffin and making inappropriate noises.

" I don' know you but I love you." Mikey gushes and trots over to make a grab for another. April shoves the tray at him but grabs two and chucks them over her shoulder at Raph, who catches them without looking.

" Toss them to Don and Leo. I want all turtles drained of blood full of muffins and pizza by eleven and no later." She looks pleadingly to Irma and she seems to take pity.

" Yeah, I'll order. You should sit down,Apes. You don't look so hot."

" I can't." April sighs,cradling her bad arm gingerly. " I gotta get Splinter set up, the boys need a place to sleep so I need to unfold the couch bed, I wanna get someone to pop my arm back in--"

" Pop your arm back in?!" Irma says too loudly and heads pop out of door ways and behind couches like gophers.

" Your arm popped out?!" Donatello gapes, shoving past a gawking Raph to clamor to her side.

" It's nothing--" April starts then muffled a cry of pain when Donnie tries to touch it. Both he and Mikey, who been peering around her shoulder to get a good look, step back and Don drops his hands like she's on fire.

" That looks pretty bad, man." Mikey winces and Leo suddenly plows through. She pauses at how angry he looks.

" What else?"

April sputters to her new crowd, backing up against the counter to get some space.

" Nothing--"

" Shredder knocked her one in the stomach."

She glares at Raphael across the room, but his face mirrors his elder brothers. Donnie's hand comes to the edge of her shirt and she smacks it away.

" Stop worrying about me!" She snaps at all of them.

" I wasn't the one who was nearly embalmed this afternoon! You guys need help--"

" We're fine!" Leo snaps right back. " We need to worry about you--"

" No you don't." She says. " What you need is to let me help you--"

" We don't need your help!"

April stops like she's been struck. The statement shouldn't hurt, but her foundation seems to crumple.  Apparently her face does too and her three surrounding brothers freeze.

" April, he didn't mean--"

" I know what he meant." She says stiffly.

Vern and Irma stare at her like she's in a zoo, waiting for her reaction, her littlest movement. The room suddenly feels too small and for the first time, she doesn't want to be around her family.

" We're not kids anymore." Leo says and their brothers wince at his continuation. It breaks the silence and her heart too. It shouldn't, god it shouldn't but she has to bite down on her cheek to keep from reacting.

They don't get it. No one ever will.

April bodily shoves past him towards the bathroom. She needs a shower, she needs to be alone.

" Wait--!"

" Apes, he didn't mean it!"

 She ignores Michelangelo and Donatello without batting an eye. Raphael stands up from the couch,ready to do something, but he doesn't know what and she moves right past him too.

She slams the door behind her and doesn't look back.

It's too quiet now and she roughly turns the shower on, only taking the second to make sure it was scolding before peeling out of her clothes. Her jacket is salvageable so she hangs it on the hook on the door. Her shirt and jeans are less so and they go straight into the waste bin to be dealt with later.

After she throws her underwear in the nearby hamper, she stops at the sink and finally gets a good look at herself.

Her shoulder is completely out of place and the unnatural bump towards her back gives her a good idea if where she needs to click it back. The skin around it is nearly black with bruises that stretch from her shoulder blade to her collarbone in a way that resembles the sky in Starry Night in deep blues and purples if you squint.

With lingering adrenaline, she bites down on a washcloth,braces against the counter top and pops it back in place.

It's one of the most painful things she'd felt in a long time, but it dwindles quick enough for her to move on to her next issues without lingering on it.

The bruise on her stomach is in the almost exact shape of Shredder's fist. It's nearly comical and she might have laughed about it if it didn't reach a point on her ribs that made it hurt to do so. Her ribs aren't broken, not that she could do much if they were, and she flips her soot filled hair back to get a good look at the gash from earlier.

Blood long since stopped and dried, the only thing left is a small cut just under her cowlick and next to the yellow of the already healing bump Raph gave her two nights before. Thankfully, there are no stitches needed there or at the symmetrical cuts across her fingers.

None of it is something pain pills or cover up can't fix, so she steps into the shower and let's the nearly boiling water melt away the grime clinging to her skin along with the tension in her muscles.

She doesn't let herself think. There was too much to dwell on from the day and too little that had just happened outside for her to pick apart. Instead, She runs shampoo through her hair and scrubs her skin with her Nana's cherry blossom body soap until she's raw.

April must spend at least an hour in the shower. No matter how long it actually is, by the time she gets out her toes are a little pruned and the water is cold. The water is turned off and there's no sound from the living room anymore. After such a long day, everyone was probably asleep.

It makes her realize that she doesn't have a bed. Splinter is taking up residence in her room for the foreseeable future, (He should be feeling much better by the next night if they were lucky. Mutagen did tend to work fast in her experience) Vern probably went home and Irma's room, full of clutter and loose knick knacks, barely had enough room for her in it let alone April.

Their corner couch doubled as a queen sized pull out bed on both sides, a piece from the last residence of the apartment  that Irma would fight to her dying breath was for orgies, that she figured would fit two turtles each exactly.

With nowhere to go and no desire to be anywhere, April throws on a loose hoodie and some sweatpants and climbs up the fire escape to the roof.

There's a cold chill in the night air that makes her shiver when she finally gets up and takes a seat on the ledge, and she pulls her wet hair into a messy bun to keep it off her neck and back.

The New York skyline is beautiful as it's always been, bright as day even though it was ten at night. The hustle and bustle of the streets below is white noise from her height, and she can still see the leftover smoke pluming from the wreckage of Sacks labs in the far distance.

The loss of the towers silhouette among the outline if the city doesn't seem to affect much of anything. She should be grateful for that.

April closes her eyes and takes such a deep breath of fresh air that hurts her bruise.But it feels good to just breath. She hears someone climb the wall behind her and lets whichever one of her brothers it is think she doesn't notice, and only opens her eyes when she feels the heat behind her.

The knife presses against her throat lightly but with purpose.

" Scream and I'll slit you wide open." Karai says next to her ear. April goes stiff and doesn't dare straighten from her slouched position in fear the knife will cut through where it rests on her jugular.

" Karai." April says and Karai yanks her back by her hood to her feet. April stumbles and Karai rights her footing with a yank and a warning press of her blade.

" You're coming with me."

" Why?" April dares. After today, putting her long learned skills to practice, she felt a stupid confidence pushing against her tongue.

" If you wanted to kill me you'd do it. You want to talk. We don't have to move."

" Watch your tongue, brat." Karai bites and moves the blade closer to her ear, an easier place to cut. Just as much pain without the cost of a life. Yet, anyway.

" You talked to Saki." April says.

Karai breathes heavy out her nose. The hot air hits her neck,goosebumps rise and it hits her.

" You want to talk about how I know Yoshi."

The blade slits from the back of her ear to her jaw and April's cry of pain is a high pitched intake of breath. Karai shoves her back and pockets the knife in favor of the sword on her hip. Their face to face and April left her fan on the bathroom counter.

" You don't get to say his name." Karai says, low and deadly.

" Why?" April bites, blood dripping down her neck hot and thick. " Because you gave a shit about him?"

" You don't get to talk about--"

" My father!"

Karai looks at April like she'd knocked the wind out if her, her eyes widen to the size of saucers. The silence on the roof top is heavy, but not for April. She knows exactly what to say, what she's wanted to scream in her sister's face since Yoshi had first shown April her picture and he frowned.

" He loved you so much." April breathes, her hands twist into fists and her cuts burn but the pain makes her keep going.

" He loved you until his last breath and where were you? Killing innocent people for the mad man that murdered your mother--"

" Sensei Shredder is my Master and my father was weak!" Karai spits venom.The idea that Yoshi was anything but amazing , brave and kind makes her blood boil.

" My mother's death--"

" Was from a fire Saki started to kill off the Hamato clan." April seethes through her teeth. Karai is livid, nostrils flares while her pink highlights dance in the wind around her face. April realizes she's not in her armour, just black.

This wasn't business.

" I found Yoshi when he was looking for you." She says.

" Yoshi spent three years in America looking for you. And he only left after he took me in, after we had to leave because Sacks wanted me and my family dead."

" I don't care about your sob story." Karai jabs.

" Then why not his?" April's voice breaks and so does something behind Karai's eyes. Behind the facade.

" I used to hate how he loved you. How the entire family loved you." She admits for the first time,even to herself. " I used to hate how they'd look so sad at your pictures and during stories. I couldn't understand how they could love you after you betrayed everyone."

" I was your replacement." April laughed bitterly. Karai didn't react. " That's what our cousins used to say when they thought I couldn't hear. And you know  what? I was there for twelve years and I never lived up to you."

April closes the space between them until their standing toe to toe. Karai's grip on her weapons is limp at best and they both look each other in the eye like they were taught.

" You are always going to be a Hamato." April says.

" And I can't forgive you for leaving Yoshi. I will never forgive you for leaving him."

April holds out her hand. A lifeline that takes air from Karai's lungs all over again in one foul swoop.

"But I can forgive you for what you've done today. If you stop and come home."

Brown eyes flicker from April's hand to her face, like she doesn't know what to believe. April's not sure if she was in her shoes, that she'd believe it either. Not if she'd done what Karai had.

But Yoshi loved her. Yoshi loved the murderous, evil, stone-hearted person before her with every bone in his body until they gave way with the rest of him. All April had ever seen from this woman was hate. But Yoshi loved her.

And she would stand for her Sensei.

Her father.

Her Yoshi.

" It's over, Karai. Let it be over."

Karai's finger twitches.

" April?"

She turns to Leonardo, pulling himself up over the ledge with wide eyes.

April curses at the same time Leo notices Karai and when she turns back, Karai is gone.

" Who was-- you're bleeding."

Leo's hand touches where the blood is drying against her neck. April flinches and pushes his hand away but her reaction makes him move more than her hand does. Karai is all but forgotten by him.

" Stop, I'm fine."

" She cut you.You're not fine." Leo says the last word harshly and moves again. April steps back at his advance and narrows her eyes at him.

" Will you stop? I'm not the one you should be worrying about."

She watches Leonardo's patience snap like a thread and he runs his hands down over his mask when growls loudly in frustration.

" God, can you get over yourself for one second?"

" Get over myself?" April scoffs incredulously."What are you even talking about?"

" This trip you've been on since you've been back!" Leo shouts in frustration.

" 'Dont worry about me'. 'I'm fine, worry about yourselves". You're going to get yourself killed!"

" I'm making sure you don't!"

" We don't need you to--"

" Oh you've made that clear." She spits and it feels like betrayal to shout at any of her brothers. Leonardo looks angry and ready for the fight, but hurt is there too.

He backs up and paces like he's trying to get his head in order, April just crosses her arms and waits while his feet hit the concrete roof with hard dull thuds that she'll probably get a complaint about from the tenants underneath.

" Not everything is about you." Leo says with a fake calm after a minute, punctuating each word and every syllable. " Not everything has to be about you being our hero."

And that's when April snaps.

" About me?" She has says quietly out of the insanity of the statement.

" About me?! You think this is about my ego?!"

" Yeah! I do!"

" EVERYTHING I'VE EVER DONE HAS BEEN FOR YOU!"

Birds scatter across the surrounding roof tops and a dog starts barking in one of the lower apartments. Leonardo doesn't speak or move or breathe. She's never shouted at any of them before.

" Everything." April says coldly,wanting to break away from his eyes with every fiber of her being .

" Everything since day one. Every decision I made, every thing I ever did was to keep you safe.I left to make sure you got to live. I changed my name and dyed my hair and left everything I'd ever known behind to make sure you'd all get a life. And the first thing you do when I get back is get thrown into danger because of me. And we stop it."

April's voice trembles as she finally takes a breath, refusing to look at him anymore.

" We stop it and then I find out you don't need me any more."

Heat pools in her eyes and her throat constricts. It's too much. It's all been too much and wrapping her arms around herself doesn't stop the cold throb of her heart.

" I don't know what I'm doing if I'm not doing it for you. I don't know who I am."

April takes a deep breath to steady herself. It hurt to swallow and when she dares to look up Leo looks just the same as she feels.

" I don't regret any of it." April says because he needs to know before they say anything else.

But nothing is said. Leonardo doesn't seem to know what to do more than she does. He's just a kid. She wished he would realize they were all just her kid brothers.

When he finally speaks, both their eyes are trained at their feet. And his voice is only just loud enough to be heard over the wind.

" Remember the night you left, what you said to me?"

She does. But she lets him say it and watches his face,lost like he's remembering.

" You said, " Take care of everyone.""

" I shouldn't have." April says. " I shouldn't have put that on you."

" Then why do you do it to yourself?"

She doesn't have an answer for him. Her eyes flicker to his for only a second. His stay.

" I've been trying to make you proud."

" Me?" April scoffs and looks up at him. Any playful self deprivation she was trying to go with died on her tongue when she sees how serious he is,his oddly pretty face pinched in frustration over his normally fluid words.

" You told me to take care of everyone. I was the eldest now and that's what you did when you were there. That's what I had to do. And when you came back I wanted you to be proud."

" You know I am." April breaths even though she's breathless. " The second I saw all of you. I'm so proud of everything you've become."

" I wanted to be like you, Apes." Leo admits and moves closer into their distance. Her words somehow making his own stronger.

" You were this big, strong powerful person I used to look up to. I still do. And I think--" he takes a deep breath and April let's her arms fall to her side. The winds chill is suddenly grounding.

" I think we ended up too alike."

April snort surprises both of them. Leonardo shakes his head and smiles a bit too.

" We need to start worrying about ourselves as much as we do eachother. April--"

The gap is closed and his large hand engulfs her shoulder like he knows Splinter does when spinning her wisdom. It's unsettling coming from him but becoming too.

" You don't have to do it all alone anymore."

April looks up at him. No matter what anyone says, screw science.They had the same eyes. Those were O'Neil blues.

" We're a team."

Leo pauses.

" We're a family."

A weight April didn't know was there lifts off her soul. Leo's hand in the only thing keeping her on the ground. Then it's his embrace.

" And of course we need you." He says,warm against her cheek. His hold has her on her tip toes.

" You're our big sister."

\--------

Leonardo and April walk back down together. He patches up the cut behind her ear first with mini first aid from his belt,then leads her with her arms wrapped around his bicep down the steps, and she allows him to help her through the living room window without jeering.

When she walks into the den, Mikey, Raph and Donnie are stripped of their gear and sitting in front of the flat screen surrounding a large pizza box. They had shoved both queen fold outs together and were positioned around a nest of pillows, blankets and drained water bottles.

Leonardo jumps right into the empty space, springs creaking up his weight, and only then do they notice she's there too.

" April." Donnie says, a little surprised. Mikey and Raph turn back too and watch her walk up and look at the TV.

She squints comically and mocks an offended huff.

" Did you guys re-start my Scrubs binge on Netflix?"

" Uh." Mikey says guiltily and quickly holds up a slice of meatlovers with an equally as guilty smile.

Raph and Donnie share a look with Leo, who ignores them completely in favor of his own slice. April sighs and takes the offering before bumping Raph on the shoulder.

" Skooch it, Raphie-Taffy."

Mikey and Leo choke on their pizza at the nickname and Donnie gasps with excitement while she scoots in between the two of them and gets comfortable. The mood goes from zero to sixty in seconds.

" We are never letting that die." Donnie declares.

April grins around her first bite. Raphael's glare is intense and burns so hot it nearly re-heats her lukewarm food.

" Raphie-Taffy." Mikey says in awe. " How did I never think of that."

April grins and leans back into her now claimed section of pillows.

" You still have much to learn, my child." April says in what is totally a dead-on impression of Splinter. Raphael groans and Mikey bows across her.

" Teach me, Sensei."

" After my pizza." April says and uses her bare foot to push his head up and away from where his carapace was dangerously over the food.

Her leg falls and lands on Raphael's lap lazily. He glares at the offending appendage and then her. So she throws the other one up there too.

" Which episode is this?"

" Uh, The janitor just brought in his girlfriend, Lady." Donnie says and pulls a pillow out to put on his hip so she can lay comfortably. She does and sends him a grateful smile.

" How's the arm?" Raph says, pretending to keep his focus on the screen." And your gut."

" I popped it back." April says and coughs "wimps" into her arm at their sympathetic hiss. Raph rolls his eyes at her but Mikey snickers.

" And my stomach is hard as a rock. I'll live."

" Rock my ass." Raph snorts and April shoves more pizza in her mouth while she gives him a look.

" Fight me, Taffy." April says through a full mouth and Donnie gags. She knows Raphael will remember the challenge from his cheeky smirk.

" God, now we know where Mikey gets it."

" Skdhdn fjrjnf hm!" Mikey declares with four slices stuffed in his mouth.

" What he said." April says and Leo flops back to lay lazily across both her and the empty pizza box while he pretends not to laugh.

"I feel like I got hit by a truck." Leo sighs and throws the box out of the bed to be delt with later. It lands neatly in a pile of about eight more by the door.

She'll pay Irma back later.

" I'm pretty sure you did." Donnie says and lays back too, throwing over a blanket that covers both him and April. She snuggles into it gratefully and throws her pizza crust into Mikey's open mouth, like old times.

" A better question is who wasn't hit by a truck today."

April raises her hand and they all boo.

" I won't give into peer pressure." April announces dutifully and pushes her foot on Raph's chest so he'll lay down too. They're all beaten down at this point and he goes without a fight.

" All the cool kids are doing it." Leo quips and Mikey fills in the empty space beside Raph with a sigh of relif when tired muscles hit soft bedding.

" Then I am a huge nerd."

" You said it, not me."

She smacks his beak with the heel of her foot and Leo laughs her off like it was a mosquito bite. So April takes initiative and plucks the remote off Donnie's chest and flicks off the tv. No one protests, and the lack of glow from the screen sends them into darkness.

No one says anything, and no sounds of even breath clue in that it's because they all fell asleep. April curls into the blanket, and when she finds Donatello's hand, squeezes his two fingers for a second.

" We did good today." April whispers because it feels like she should.

" Yeah." Raph agrees lightly at the same volume.

" We're kinda heros." Mikey hums and Donnie snorts, which is the endlessly adorable way he laughs.

" Superheros."

" I'm not into spandex that much." Mikey mumbles,muffled by the sheets.

" I've always wanted to wear a cape." Leo muses.

" Seriously." April chuckles.

" I'm really proud of you guys."

She said it to Leo before, but now to the group, it gets a beat of silence.

" Thanks, Apes." Raphael says quietly.

" Yeah." Donatello mumbles with emotion.

She sees the outline of Michelangelo's head lifts from the sheets in the darkness.

" Proud enough to get us an X-Box?"

" Shut up, Mikey!"

" You ruined the moment-- April, do it again."

For the first time in her life, April laughs herself to sleep. She doesn't know when they all finally cave from exhaustion, or when the jokes and conversation lull into silence. But despite anything she may have said before--

It's the best nights sleep of her life.

\----

  

**Author's Note:**

> (( I've been writing this fic for a long time and I'm very happy to say it's finished. Beta'd by the lovely vainvaihe, I give to you, Sister. Updates are either going to be once a week starting monday or twice and comments are appreciated!))


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